On Saturday, the American Library Association kicked off the annual celebration of Banned Books Week, the only national celebration of the freedom to read. Held yearly since 1982 by the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, Banned Books Week "highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted banning of books across the U.S."
The theme for this year's celebration is, "Think for yourself - and let others do the same." To start the week-long celebration, the ALA and Banned Books Week held a Read-Out in Chicago on Saturday, during which authors featured on the "Most Frequently Challenged Books" list read aloud from their work. Locally, Lesley University in Cambridge will host a Read-Out this Thursday from 12pm to 6pm. The ALA's website has a number of resources for teachers and librarians, such as free downloads, activity suggestions and a calendar of other BBW events taking place across the country.
You might be surprised to find some of your favorite authors on the list of books challenged most frequently. Courage Curriculum novels were among the top 100 challenged books during the 2000-2009 decade, including Bridge to Terabithia, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, and So Far From the Bamboo Grove, as well as novels by well-known children's authors Lois Lowry, Madeleine L'Engle and Judy Blume.
Banned Books Week starts on the heels of two recent challenges to books aimed at young adults: in one Missouri town, the local school district voted to ban Sherman Alexie's National Book Award-winning novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, while just a week ago, another Missouri town ran an newspaper editorial calling for the ban of, among other books, Laurie Halse Anderson's Printz Honor book, Speak.
