Banned Books Week

A good book can be challenging to the reader and, when it's a library book, challenged by the reader--that is, a reader can request that the book be censored (banned) from the library's collection. Chances are you've read about these challenges in the news; in the past eight years there have been over 3,700 challenges brought to American libraries by their patrons. Banned Books Week celebrates the effort by libraries to uphold standards of intellectual freedom and resist efforts to ban books. If it weren't for such efforts, books like Harry Potter or The Catcher in the Rye wouldn't have a spot on library bookshelves.

To celebrate Banned Books Week, why not check out a "banned" book from the library? Here's a list of the Top 100 Classics that have been banned or challenged, and if it's something more recent you're looking for then check out these lists of the Top 10 Banned Books by year. Another interesting website is this map showing locations of book bans and challenges between 2007-2009.

MW