Banned Books Week!

 

 

Happy Banned Book Week! Every year I hear about banned book week but this year is when I will actively read and post about it.  I do have a few books that I need to get read for reviews and such, but for the most part I am really really hoping to read banned books this week.  A lot of them I have already read, mostly through school, many many of them have been imprinted in my mind as books that I absolutely LOVED (I know why the caged bird sings, Uncle Toms cabin, roll of thunder hear my cry, even the giving tree!)  I haven't found a really great list of one completely banned books list, mostly because there are a lot more challenged books versus banned books.

 

 

Banned books!? WHAT!?? What am I talking about you are asking?

September 21−27, 2014

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. 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.

So basically if someone is upset about a book, they can challenge the book and attempt to get it banned from libraries, and schools and things like that.  And this week raises awareness on the books getting challenged, so that we may be able to stop them from being BANNED!

According to the ALA (American library association) A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice.

Take a look yourself.. Frequently Challenged Books,  also Here, Here and Here and even Children's Books.  Incredible right?  Can you imagine a worked without Harry Potter?  Judy Blume? Charlottes Web? or even Wizard of Oz?  Even the classics that were forced down my throat as a high schooler.  I admit that I loved reading most of them.  I still have fond memories of Lord of the Flies, 1984, and Their Eyes Were Watching God.

I'm reading them! 

 

Some of them I'm having a hard time getting my hands on, the truly banned ones.  So I'm not sure what I will read, and when..I do know this..

My first banned book read of the week?  Uncle Toms Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.