The American Library Association (ALA) is celebrating 30 years of Banned Books Week, a movement started to support the freedom to read. 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.
Some of the most challenged books this year include some very well known authors and are currently lead by Lauren Myracle’s ttyl, ttfn, and l8r, g8r; Kim Dong Hwa’s The Color of Earth; and Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy. The ALA says the 326 challenges reported last year represent only a fraction of all contested books.
People all over the country are celebrating the freedom of being able to read whatever they wish. Publishers, and bookstores along with the ALA are bringing awareness to this topic. The Banned Books Week (BBW) website is hosting a Virtual Read-Out where participants read aloud from banned books. Today’s featured guest is Stephen Chbosky, author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Across the country libraries are hosting events in celebration of these books and authors. Simon & Schuster has a webpage dedicated to all the books they’ve published that have been challenged. It also features quotes from frequently challenged authors like Judy Blume. Macmillan asked several of its authors, including Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak) and Marissa Meyer (Cinder), to bring banned books to their local libraries with personal notes that say “Read Banned Books!” Also, be sure to check out the Huffington Post’s Banned Books Infograph.
Most challenged books in 2011:
1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
2. The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
3. The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
4. My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
6. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
7. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
8. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
9. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
10. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism
Stay tuned all week as we bring you more details about banned books and some of the cool things happening around the internet to support the freedom to read.
