Banned Books Week Sept 27th -Oct 4th

Well, it's been a while since we've posted anything on our blog and we sincerely apologize. We'll definitely do better in the future!

The last week in September we celebrate Banned Books Week. "Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met." (ALA)

As I was setting up our Banned Books display a student came by to see what I was doing. He expressed surprise at some of the titles listed and asked me why in the world James and the Giant Peach would be banned. Although I knew that most books are challenged for being “sexually explicit”, having “offensive language” or being inappropriate for a particular age group, I had no ready answer for him (ALA). However, I have since come across this site Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books. Most of the information is taken from the American Library Association’s Banned Books Resource Guide and the Ready Reference Censorship. According to this site, James and the Giant Peach has been challenged for being inappropriate for the age group, containing crude language, promoting drugs and encouraging children to disobey their parents. So now we know!