Celebrate Your Right to Read at Newtown Library During Banned Book Week

By Wendy Ann Mitchell (Patch Staff)

Generally held the last week of September, Banned Books Week celebrates the right to choose books freely without censorship.

The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom has recorded over 10,000 book challenges since beginning to document cases in 1990. A challenge is a formal, written complaint requesting a book be removed from library shelves or school curriculum.

Many of the books that top the list are children’s books. In 2013, the top banned book in America was the Dave Pilkey’s Captain Underpants, most frequently challenged for potty language and toilet humor.

Check out the American Library Association’s top 10 banned books of 2013:

Top 10 out of 307 challenges as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey

• Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence

• Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

• Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

• Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

• Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

• Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit

• Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

• Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

• Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

• Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

According to the ALA, “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.”

For more information on getting involved with Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, please see Ideas and Resources, Calendar of Events,and the new Banned Books Week site.

Click here for hours, location and more info on Newtown Public Library.

Photo: BannedBooksWeek.org

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