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Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
Join RFB&D as we focus on Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read. Observed during the last week of September each year since 1982, the event reminds Americans not to take our precious democratic freedom for granted.
Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to express one’s opinions even if they might be considered unpopular or unorthodox, and the importance of ensuring the availability of those unpopular or unorthodox opinions to all who want to read them. In recognition of this event, RFB&D has prepared a special book list for you to enjoy that includes titles from the American Library Association's list of Frequently Challenged Authors and Frequently Challenged Titles for 2009.
“Banned Books Week offers librarians, book publishers, authors, teachers, parents and other literacy advocates the opportunity to teach students about the First Amendment, which guarantees all American citizens the right to free speech,” says Pam Johnson, RFB&D’s Director of Library Services. “The right to free speech also means the right to write or read materials that may not necessarily agree with popular opinion.”
Most books that are questioned are not actually banned but “challenged” — most often motivated by the desire to protect children from “inappropriate” content or “offensive” language. Although some might view this as an understandable motivation, the American Library Association’s (ALA) Free Access to Libraries for Minors policy, an interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (the American Library Associations’ basic policy concerning access to information) states that “Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents — and only parents — have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children — and only their children — to library resources.” ALA maintains that censorship by librarians of constitutionally protected speech violates the First Amendment.
Banned Books Week is sponsored by the ALA; the American Booksellers Association; the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the Association of American Publishers; the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Association of College Stores, and is endorsed by the Library of Congress Center for the Book. For more information about Banned Books Week, visit: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/backgroundb/background.cfm
View RFB&D’s List of Lesson Plans on Frequently Challenged Books and Books by Frequently Challenged Authors.
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