Free to Read

What will you be reading next week? That question could have a very different answer than what you might be thinking right now if some people had their way. Every year many books face challenges. People want to pull books from the shelves of their school and public libraries because because they don't think it is appropriate for someone else to read.

Since 1982 Banned Books Week has been observed in the United States. And this weekend will start the 2008 observance. Starting 27 September and ending on 4 October we have the opportunity to participate in Banned Books week.

Book are challenged for a variety of reasons. The American Library Association lists the most common on its website. They include reasons such as "sexually explicit" content, "offensive language," material that is considered by some to be "unsuited to [an] age group," books having an "occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism," works that are considered "violent," books with a homosexual theme or that are considered by some to be "promoting homosexuality," or works that "promoting a religious viewpoint." Challenges are also frequently made against books that contain “nudity," issues related to "racism," "sex education," or that are considered by some "anti-family."

Some of you may ask, "Why would I want to celebrate banned books week? I don't want to read a book that has been challenged this reason or that reason." But let me ask you a question:

If books were banned - who would get to choose what books were "appropriate" for you to read?

I would be willing to bet that there are books that have been challenged that you have read. Probably even several that you absolutely loved. I know that is the case for me.

Here's a short list of some books that are frequently challenged - to see the entire list of frequently challenged books visit the American Library Association's website.

A Light in the Attic By Silverstein, Shel 1981/10 - HarperCollins Publishers 0060256737 CHECK CATALOG "Silverstein's book . . . deserves to be placed along-side Mother Goose. Popular with adults and youngsters alike, the poetry encompasses satires, limericks, ballads, questions, tall stories, ridiculous situations, and a deft way with language."--"Language Arts." Illustrations. ...More

Bridge to Terabithia By Paterson, Katherine Leonard, Robert Sean Leonard, Robert Sean 2001/01 - Harper Children's Audio 0694524522 CHECK CATALOG In this classic novel, the friendship between young Jess and Leslie grows as they meet in Terabithia, their secret hiding place where the two of them rule as king and queen. Then tragedy strikes and their kingdom is threatened. Only when Jess comes to grips with this tragedy does he finally understand the gift Leslie has given him. Unabridged. ...More

The Witches By Dahl, Roald Blake, Quentin 2007/08 - Puffin Books 014241011X CHECK CATALOG Meet a hero, a wise old grandmother, and the most gruesome, grotesque gang of witches imaginable! ...More

A Wrinkle in Time By L'Engle, Madeleine 1962/01 - Farrar Straus Giroux 9780374386139 CHECK CATALOG It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger. "Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract." A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. "A Wrinkle in Time," winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in sear ...More

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings By Angelou, Maya 2002/03 - Random House 9780375507892 CHECK CATALOG In the first volume of an extraordinary autobiographical series, one of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls--with candor, humor, poignancy and grace--how her journey began.... "From the Trade Paperback edition. ...More

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone By Rowling, J. K. GrandPre, Mary 1997/01 - Scholastic 9780590353403 CHECK CATALOG Rosie Award Winner 2000-2001 2000 Grand Canyon Reader Award Winner - Teen Winner - 2001 Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Award CCBC Choices - 1998 What did Harry Potter know about magic? He was stuck with the decidedly un-magical Dursleys, who hated him. He slept in a closet and ate their leftovers. But an owl messenger changes all that, with an invitation to attend the Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches, where it turns out Harry is already famous.. . . Full color. ...More

The Giver By Lowry, Lois 1997/05 - Laurel-Leaf Books 9780440227274 CHECK CATALOG ...More

The Chocolate War By Cormier, Robert 1974/03 - Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers 9780394828053 CHECK CATALOG Reissued now in hardcover with a new introduction by the author, Cormier's chilling look at the insidious world of gang intimidation and the abuse of power in a boys' boarding school is no less relevant today than it was in 1974. ...More

James and the Giant Peach: A Children's Story By Dahl, Roald Smith, Lane 1996/04 - Puffin Books 0140374248 CHECK CATALOG When magic touches an old peachtree, strange things start happening. A giant peach grows as large as a house, and when James crawls inside, the adventure begins. Lane Smith has created wonderful new illustrations based on the characters in the new full-length movie from Disney. ...More

The Color Purple By Walker, Alice 2006/11 - Harvest Books 9780156031820 CHECK CATALOG Banner] Now a Tony Award-Winning Broadway Musical "The Color Purple "is the story of two sisters--one a missionary to Africa and the other a child wife living in the South--who remain loyal to one another across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life. "Intense emotional impact . . . Indelibly affecting . . . Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer."--"The New York Times Book Review ""Places Walker in the company of Faulkner."--"The Nation ""Superb . . . A work to stand beside literature of any time and place."--"San Francisco"" Chronicle """The Color Purple "is an American novel of permanent importance."--"Newsweek ""Marvelous characters . . . A story of revelation . ...More

Day No Pigs Would Die By Peck, Robert Newton 1994/09 - Topeka Bindery 9780785713524 CHECK CATALOG This gentle story about a 12-year-old Vermont farm boy "manages to evoke a sense of vanished America--when neighbors were neighborly, when food was home-cooked, and clothes and philosophy homespun" (Newsweek). ALA Best Book for Young Adults. ...More

The Great Gilly Hopkins By Paterson, Katherine 1978/03 - HarperCollins 9780690038385 CHECK CATALOG Winner of the 1979 National Book Award for Children's Literature and many other distinguished awards, this 1979 Newbery Honor Book is filled with love and compassion as it tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who yearns for a real family. ...More

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn By Twain, Mark Fishkin, Shelley Fisher 2002/12 - Signet Book 9780451528643 CHECK CATALOG Newly repackaged and featuring a new Introduction, Twain's classic tales of life on the Mississippi capture both the complexities of American life while regaling the boyhood adventures of two of the most popular characters in American literature. Reissue. ...More

The Catcher in the Rye. By Salinger, J. D. 1951/07 - Little Brown and Company 9780316769532 CHECK CATALOG The hero-narrator of "The Catcher in the Rye" is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices -- but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. Ho ...More

Fallen Angels By Myers, Walter Dean 2003/02 - Topeka Bindery 9780833531803 CHECK CATALOG This 1989 Coretta Scott King award winner is the story of one young man's tour of duty in Vietnam as well as a testament to the thousands of young people who lived and died during the war. ...More

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark By Schwartz, Alvin Gammell, Stephen 1986/09 - HarperTrophy 0064401774 CHECK CATALOG For fans of things that go bump in the night, here is a bewitching treat. "Not since "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" has there been a collection of horror stories as well suited for children."--"School Library Journal." Illustrations. ...More

The Face on the Milk Carton By Cooney, Caroline B. 1996/04 - Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers 038532328X CHECK CATALOG Iowa Teen Award - 1993 Winner YHBA Winner 1993 A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity. ...More

Native Son By Wright, Richard 2005/08 - Harper Perennial 006083756X CHECK CATALOG Native Son tells the story of A young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America. ...More

Anastasia Krupnik By Lowry, Lois de Groat, Diane 1979/10 - Houghton Mifflin Company 0395286298 CHECK CATALOG Anastasia's tenth year has some good things, like falling in love and really getting to know her grandmother, and some bad things, like finding out about an impending baby brother. ...More

Beloved By Morrison, Toni 2004/06 - Vintage Books USA 1400033411 CHECK CATALOG Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved" is a towering achievement. ...More

Lord of the Flies By Golding, William Forster, E. M. Forster, E. M. 1997/08 - Riverhead Books 1573226122 CHECK CATALOG Capturing generations of readers since its publication in 1954, "Lord of the Flies" is a cult favorite among students and literary critics. An adventure tale in its purest form, this thrilling account of a group of British schoolboys marooned on a tropical island exposes the duality of human nature itself--the dark, eternal divide between order and chaos, intellect and instinct, structure and savagery. ...More

To Kill a Mockingbird By Lee, Harper 2002/03 - Harper Perennial Modern Classics 0060935464 CHECK CATALOG This beloved, Pulitzer Prize-winning classic is now being published with the original jacket art, printed endpapers, a ribbon marker, and a full cloth slipcase. Lee's timeless masterpiece makes the perfect gift for every generation. (Literary Classics) ...More

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer By Twain, Mark Seelye, John Cardwell, Guy 2006/02 - Penguin Books 0143039563 CHECK CATALOG The classic story of Missouri river-rat Tom Sawyer is joined by an Introduction by noted Twain scholar Seelye, who considers Twain's impact on American literature. ...More

Are You There God? It's Me Margaret By Blume, Judy 2001/04 - Atheneum Books 0689841582 CHECK CATALOG ...More

Julie of the Wolves By George, Jean Craighead 2003/09 - HarperTrophy 0060540958 CHECK CATALOG Now in a new paperback edition--the Newbery Medal-winning classic that introduced a brave girl named Miyax and the wild pack of wolves that teaches her how to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. ...More

The American Library Association reported that between 1990 and 2004 the most frequently challenged books were by authors like Alvin Schwartz, Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, J.K. Rowling, Michael Willhoite, Katherine Paterson, Stephen King, Maya Angelou, R.L. Stine, and John Steinbeck. Any of these sound familiar to you? I'm guessing that you have at least heard of more than one of these authors. We have books by these authors on our library shelves and check them out to readers every day.

What if these books (and many more) were all of a sudden unavailable for you to read? What if you knew your child would never be able to read one of them?

So, what will you be reading next week? Aren't you glad the choice is yours? Aren't you gald that you are free to read?

Let's keep it that way by discouraging book banning and by supporting Banned Book Week.

Here's a great video from YouTube in which Katie Couric talks about Banned Book week.

Elizabeth