Banned Books Week 2015
September 27 - October 3, 2015 is Banned Books Week.
Every fall, the American Library Association (ALA) sets aside a week to celebrate the importance of free and open access to information, to promote awarenes of the dangers of censorship, and to invite readers to advocate for themselves by supporting the rights of others.
The ALA describes the week-long focus this way: "Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community--librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types--in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular."
As part of this yearly celebration, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom draws attention to the ongoing battle against censorship by compiling a list of the books most frequently challenged during the previous year.
A challenged book is one for which a formal, written complaint has been filed requesting that a library or school remove or restrict access to the material due to content or appropriateness. A banned book is one that has been removed due to such a challenge.
If you'd like to participate in Banned Books Week by reading a challenged title, you might consider one from the list below.
Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2014
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
To read these or other banned or challenged books for yourself, and to learn more about the history of censorship, you know where to go: The Library!
Find this article at http://thelibrary.org/blogs/article.cfm?aid=3976&lid=0