September 25 - October 2 is Banned Books Week. Yes, we're celebrating banned books! Of course we aren't celebrating the fact that books are banned, but we are celebrating our first amendment right and our freedom to read. Plus, Banned Books Week is a great way to highlight the ways that censorship is damaging and narrow-minded.
Unfortunately books are challenged and banned ever year. Sometimes those books are removed from the shelves, and ultimately denying anyone the chance to read them. Challenging a book and banning a book are not the same. When someone challenges a book, it's an attempt to remove the title, when the book is actually banned the title is removed. Here's is what the ALA has to say about the difference:
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.
What warrants a challenge?
Usually the reasons are the materials are 'sexually explicit' or contain 'offensive language.'
According to the ALA, the number one reason for challenging a book is because it's deemed 'sexually explicit.' The initiator of the challenge is usually a parent, in fact 48% of the time it is. And most the attacked institutions are the classroom, school libraries and public libraries.
That is incredibly disturbing to me. I'm not a parent. If I were, I would not allow someone to dictate what my child reads. I don't have a problem with a parent deciding what is appropriate for their own child, but I can't condone banning a book for the masses.
I'm proud to say that I read banned books and promote the reading of banned books!
Use this week to exercise your own right to READ BANNED BOOKS!
Banned/Challenged Books I've read:
1. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
2. House of Night series by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
3. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead
6. The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
7. Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
8. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
9. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
10. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
11. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
12. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
13. The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
14. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
15. The Giver by Lois Lowry
16. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
17. Forever by Judy Blume
18. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
19. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
20. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
21. Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
23. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
And growing...