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