Banned Books Week 2013!

Hey Readers! So I just found through another blogger that is Banned Books Week! (Shame on me for not knowing about this before hand).

Banned Books Week is created by the American Library Association and celebrates the freedom to read, something we should be very grateful and appreciative for.

Banned Books Week is the national book community’s annual celebration of the freedom to read. Hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2013 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 22-28.  Banned Books Week 2014 will be held September 21-27.

For more information, you should check out this website: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

To join in the celebration, I’ll review a book off of the list (the most recently banned books from May 2012- May 2013): http://www.ila.org/BannedBooks/BBW_2012-2013_Shortlist.pdf

After looking into this, I decided to look up more info on banned and/or challenged books and found a list with books dating from 1999-2000. I was so surprised to see some of the books that were on the list, and even from a couple that I read myself.

Just to name a few:

• Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
• The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
• The Color Purple- Alice Walker
• Goosebumps (series)- R.L. Stine
• Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keys
• Are you There God? It’s Me Margaret Judy Blume
• The Face on the Milk Carton- Caroline Cooney
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding

So I challenge the readers out there to celebrate Banned Book Week and spotlight and review one of the books from the list. Discuss the whole issue of banned books and share  your thoughts with others!

Have you read any of the books listed before? What books will you choose to read? What do you think about banned books? Let me know!

Related articles

• It’s Banned Books Week! (greenwichlibrary.org)
• Banned Books Week (ivplteens.wordpress.com)
• Banned Books Week: September 22-28, 2013 (putnamcountylibrary.wordpress.com)
• Banned Books Week (jhame085.wordpress.com)
• Banned Books Week (ashleyfarley.net)