Celebrate Your Right to Read During Banned Book Week

By Wendy Ann Mitchell (Patch Staff)

Banned Books Week, generally held the last week of September, 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 Dave Pilkey
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
   Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    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.