Celebrating Banned Books Week and our Freedom to READ! Sept. 30 – Oct. 6th

Freedom to Read Banned Books Week – stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them. Intellectual Freedom –is the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular.

Do you recognize any of these books? Have you read them? How would you feel if they were removed from this library?

These are some of the books that have been…. –Banned To forbid especially by law. –Censored An official who checks materials (such as books) to take out things thought to be objectionable(people might disapprove of). AND/OR –Challenged The removal of books from library shelves have been requested.

OIF Censorship Database Challenges by the Year

Some of the reasons from

OIF Censorship Database Challenges by Institution

OIF Censorship Database Initiator of Challenge

Some silly reasons for the following books….. This book was challenged at the Cunningham Elementary School in Wisconsin (1985) because the book “encourages children to break dishes so they won’t have to dry them”.

Removed from a school in Conn. (2000) due to concerns that it caused disruptive behavior among children.

Removed from the 5 th grade classroom from a school in Pulaski Twp, Pa. due to an elaborate fantasy world they felt might lead to confusion.

Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling They promote witchcraft, set bad examples and are too dark.

What could some of the reasons be for challenging this series? Your thoughts

–What Law gives us the right to freedom of speech, freedom to write what we want to, freedom to read what we want? The Constitution of the United States. 1 st 10 Amendments … Bill of Rights

Celebrate Your Freedom to Read!

Bibliography ALA.org Sept Follett Library Resources Sept 2010.