Banned Books Week 2012 September 30th- October 6th

 This year marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read and the importance of free and open access to information.

You would be shocked at all the great books that have been targeted with being removed from public libraries or schools. Sometimes a person finds something offensive in a book and wants it taken out of a school or public library. Librarians are against censorship like this. If every book that offended everyone was taken away, our shelves would be pretty empty and our freedom to read very limited.

We are lucky to live in a society where our reading is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.  Celebrate that by reading a banned book this week!

The list of banned books is really, really, sadly very long. You can do a Google search to find long lists. Here are a few books from those lists:

• The dictionary (seriously?!)
• Where the Wild Things Are (a child who yells at his mother!! Supernatural elements!  Oh, no…)
• Little Red Riding Hood (a version that promoted alcohol to minors…Little Red bringing a bottle of wine to sick Grandma)
•  I couldn’t make this stuff up.
• Here are some more:
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Hunger Games
• Twilight
• The Giver
• Are You There, God?  It’s Me, Margaret
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
• Most of Sarah Dessen’s books

I could go on and on. Go here for a list of the Top  Ten Frequently Challenged books by year. To celebrate your freedom to read, curl up and read a banned book this week!

Want to listen to some banned books? Go to the North Carolina State University site to listen.
Connie

Some Sad and Scary New Books

I was browsing the new Young Adult new fiction display alcove, and was drawn to some titles that are either sad or scary or both. Maybe the cool autumn air is putting me in a Halloween mood! Here are some of the books I discovered.

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson
This subtitle of this book is An Elegy.  Do you know what an “elegy” is? It’s a song or a poem that expresses sorrow, especially sorrow for someone who has died. Fifteen-year-old Laurel, grieving over the death of her mother and her grandmother and the loss of their family home, moves to Galilee. She makes a new friend, becomes a cheerleader, and everything is going pretty well, ….and then she meets T-Boom, a star basketball player. T-Boom introduces her to meth (which they call “moon”) and her life goes downhill so fast my heart nearly stopped. 

The Night She Disappeared by April Henry
Gabie delivers pizza part-time after school in her Mini Cooper.  One night, another pizza delivery girl, Kayla, does not return from a delivery. Is she kidnapped?  Murdered? When Gabie learns that the man who ordered the pizza asked that it be delivered by the girl in the Mini Cooper, she worries that she was the actual target. Along with co-worker Drew, Gabie tries to find Kayla and discover who kidnapped her. The chapters shift to different kids’ viewpoints and even to that of the perpetrator. Interspersed are police reports, interviews, and 911 call transcripts, which make the action in the book seem really real.

The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall
When the Panthers basketball coach is murdered, eighteen-year-old Jeremy Long, a boy with autism who has not spoken one word for nine years, is accused of the murder. Jeremy’s sister, Hope, lives up to her name: she believes her brother and tries to prove his innocence. Can she?

Stop in for more suggestions...Connie

GOODREADS!

Do you like Facebook and social networking sites?  Do you love to read as much as I do?  Do you love talking about books with your friends, sharing book titles with them, and getting great book recommendations?  

Then Goodreads is for you!

Goodreads is a website and also an app that can be downloaded free on your mobile device. Make a simple account. You can invite your Facebook friends and other friends who make accounts to be your friends on Goodreads.  You read and rate books and can see what others are reading and what they have rated books.  Goodreads will send you suggestions of books you might like to read, based on the kinds of books you have already read.  You can create shelves: currently reading, want to read, already read, etc.  You can message your friends within Goodreads, too.

It’s safe, really easy to set up, and just as addictive as Facebook for those of us who are readers!

I have many teens who are my friends on Goodreads.  Set up an account and invite me to be your friend so we can start sharing really good books that we love!

Connie