Banned Books Week

Tomorrow is the first day of Banned Books Week.

With the recent discussions about burning the Quran in protest on 9/11, this years Banned Books Week feels especially important.

I am a firm believer in our right as a free society to have access to information. While I find the action of burning the American flag to be deplorable, I recognize it as a form of free speech that must be protected--however, burning books, or banning them from a public library, is horrifying, because to me, it is deliberately withholding the power of knowledge and free-thinking from the people who use those libraries.

The American Library Association (ALA) " actively advocates in defense of the rights of library users to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment.  A publicly supported library provides free and equal access to information for all people of that community.  We enjoy this basic right in our democratic society.  It is a core value of the library profession" (ALA Website--Intellectual Freedom). In this world, where hate and fear spread like wildfire through our endless sources of media, it is more important than ever that all citizens have access to information, to knowledge, and to opportunities to open their minds further to the world.

When I was teaching high school, our librarian promoted Banned Books Week heavily every year. Teachers (myself, included) wore large "bibs" with pictures of banned/challenged books around our necks to open up the conversation with our students. Most of my kids didn't pay much attention, but I like to think that somewhere, deep in their teenaged brains, something resonated.

In honor of this year's Banned Books Week, I will be featuring a book each day that has been banned and/or challenged (sticking, of course, to books I've actually read). I will start tomorrow with a novel that is one of my favorite books of all time. Stay tuned, and please, join in the discussion, whether here, in the comments section, or on your own forum.