Read it or Weep

Freedom to Read 2011 -Once More! September 30, 2011

After today, you still have one more full day to *celebrate* your individual Freedom to Read any book of your choosing! (Of course, I’m hoping you be celebrate your right to read freely every day!) But today is the last of the week for me and so I thought I’d leave you a few more links to start a conversation or two. The first is sponsored by Books AtoZ and has a wonderful collection of other sites to visit divided up by topic. Fact Monster has a nice, brief overview, plus more titles to explore listed down the right side of the page. And finally, there’s a fun list of 50 Banned Books That Everyone Should Read with explanations.

This week, I’ve been rereading a favorite -and often challenged- book, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. And what you? What did you read? Maybe you’ve found something to enjoy this week? Or maybe you still will! Either way, have a fabulous day reading through these sites -and- all the books you can gather!

— Stacey

Freedom to Read 2011 -Even More and More! September 29, 2011

From sea to shining sea, everyone’s talking about our freedom to read! On the East Coast, The Washington Post is responsible for an interesting blog posting on the topic and they point out that the mention of drugs has become the current subject matter to cause the most challenges. On the West Coast, the Los Angeles Times has an article that should get some people talking! To the way far away European coastline of the United Kingdom with a list of 100 great banned books!

I think it’s the wide variety of lists from such a wide variety of sources that makes me appreciate our Freedom to Read Week celebrations. It’s not that I am busy envisioning myself, or anyone else really, standing in front of a bonfire with my arms outstretched to block the tossing of books on the pile. Instead, I am envisioning people being surprised into a discussion, or even some personal contemplation, about the world we live in now vs. what we want the world to become and how books, the good and the bad, make a difference. Right?

Still reading?

— Stacey

A Preemptive Strike October 2, 2010

This week we have celebrated our freedom to read and put a spotlight on the issue of censorship and intellectual freedom. If you have seen the lists of challenged and banned books you will notice that many are books written for teens. Earlier in the week Stacey wrote about a teen author, Laurie Halse Anderson, who is very familiar with censorship. Young Adult authors, teachers, librarians, and readers have jumped to Ms. Anderson’s defense. In one case, the result was further censorship.

Andrea Cremer, a young adult author, was just one of many bloggers who felt compelled to speak in defense of Ms. Anderson. You can read her posting here. A few days later Ms. Cremer found herself in the principal’s office prior to a school visit. The reason? A groups of parents, after reading about her support of Ms. Anderson, were concerned about the “inappropriate content” of her work. That is a very interesting concern, considering Andrea Cremer’s debut novel, Nightshade, will not be published until October 19th, 2010! None of these concerned parents could have read the book, and yet, they were challenging the content. While I find this one incident frightening enough, it turns out that it is not the first time this has happened!

According to the ALA, Henderson Junior High School in Stephenville, Texas, has banned the entire Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. When the books were banned in 2009 the fifth book had not yet been published and the sixth, and final book was not even completely written! I am speechless. Thankfully, this quote from Chris Sims of Comics Alliance sums things up: “Stephenville ISD is ‘so committed to censorship that they are shattering the space-time continuum to literally ban books from the future.’” Amazing. See the entire Huffington Post article here.

You can get any of these books at our library (after they are published, of course!)so feel free to place a hold on one today. I know I will.

˜Megan

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read September 29, 2010

I wanted to share this interesting link for Banned Books Week :

Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2010

Taken from the actual cases that have been documented by the American Library Association and the Kids’ Right to Read Project, this Google Map represents the places in the United States where books have been banned or challenged since 2007. ALA documented 460 challenges in 2009 but believes that this number is only 20-25% of the actual challenges or bans that did occur. Many of these challenges are never officially reported and documented.

Happy Reading and Happy to be celebrating our Freedom to Read! ~Donna

What’s So Scary About Letting Me Pick My Own Books? September 29, 2010

Now I am An Adult and I get to choose whatever I want when I see all those interesting looking books on the shelf! But honestly? My Mom was extremely open-minded and never, ever told me that any book was off-limits or inappropriate. She had lots of great qualities but this is one of the things that I think made her an Outstanding Parent, that she was let me read whatever and whenever I wanted. In fact, I was one of those kids other parents might have been annoyed with after sharing my copy of Forever by Judy Blume… Oh, well. Still not sorry about that other kids’ parents! But this also part of my point. If reading this book is supposed to lead kids astray, then how do you explain so many kids in one community reading this radical book but – to the best of my knowledge – none of us became troubled teens? It can be such a relief to read a book to gain knowledge through your own life experience or, even more importantly, so that you know you are not alone in that experience.

All of this is leading up to what inspired me to write about this topic today. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is an incredible book and should be read both boy and girl teens, along with the adult in their lives, so that a tough topic can be approached with a common understanding. I was talking about this book with a High School Librarian who said the small book discussion that took place after the teens read Speak was one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking discussions she’d ever heard. What a gift that is! But this book is regularly challenged and the most current attack on this book strikes me as particularly harsh. A man in Missouri is trying to label Speak as “soft pornography” and nothing could be further from the truth. Ms. Anderson posted a response on her blog with links to the opinion piece he submitted to his local newspaper and links to four different avenues of response, if you should choose to get involved.

Doesn’t this seem very un-American, attempting to limit access to information and trying to prevent other people from making their own decisions about what to read? I think so, but I’m also willing to let you come to your own conclusions. If you *are* a fan of the First Amendment, if you believe books should never be banned because they make you think or feel something unfamiliar or uncomfortable, please join me in reading a banned or challenged book this week! Okay? Okay!

— Stacey