Sept. 24 to Oct. 1 is Banned Books Week, across the U.S., and at the The Teen Department looks like a construction zone, but all the yellow caution tape just highlights books that have been challenged, restricted or outright banned in towns across the country.
In 2010 and 2011, 46 titles were challenged.
The American Library Association (ALA) sponsors Banned Books Week each September, an observance that started in 1982. Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular.
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This observance stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read. ALA states that “frequently, challenges are motivated by the desire to protect children, (and that) while the intent is commendable, this method of protection contains hazards” that undermine our First Amendment rights.
Since many of the books challenged over the past years have been young adult novels, the Teen Department has assembled the display. Included are classics like Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl.
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Current titles that have run into trouble are Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and all the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. The list includes the Pulitzer Prize winners, Paul Zindel and Joseph Lelveld, and National Book Award honorees, Laurie Halse Anderson and Alexie Sherman.
Come to the Teen Department, pick up a Banned Books Week button, and learn about some of the challenged titles and the issues they have raised.
