Every year we celebrate the Freedom to Read, except this year marks the 30th Anniversary of Banned Books Week. That’s right, three decades of highlighting those books that have been banned, challenged, or restricted in libraries and schools across the country. You can celebrate Banned Books Week by picking up a banned book from your local library. Check out the list below for a sampling of the titles challenged over the past 30 years.
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Hunger Games (series) by Suzanne Collins
- The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- ttyl, ttfn, l8r g8r by Lauren Myracle (series)
- And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson
- The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
- What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
- Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut
Want to do something more than just revisiting your favorite banned book? Check out the Virtual Read-Out! Don’t know what that is? Well, it’s simple: select a passage from your favorite banned or challenged title and share it in a YouTube video. If you’re camera shy, you can still check out the videos on the BBW Virtual Read-Out YouTube Channel from authors, librarians, readers, and booksellers (like the video below from Arizona-based Bookmans).
More Info:
Banned Books Week – The website includes information on the Virtual Read-Out, Info on Censorship, Social Media Links, and more.- ALA Banned Books Page – This section of the ALA website includes information on how to report challenges, lists of challenged books by decade and frequency, and historical information on BBW, including the interactive timeline: “30 Years of Liberating Literature”
