This week is Banned Book Week.
Banned Book Week is a national awareness campaign was launched in 1982 by the American Library Association (ALA), the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, National Association of College Stores, and endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
It is an attempt to protect our freedom of speech and our democratic freedom to read. It is a celebration of one's freedom to choose and express one's views no matter how unorthodox, and the freedom to have those thoughts and views available to those who wish to read them. The ALA stresses that "intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met."
The reason that books are banned in the first place vary, but they all share the same qualities in that they push what is considered to be the moral, ethical or societal boundaries at the time. Banning a book, or simply making it unavailable to readers, is (to put it mildly) censorship.
We all deserve the right to think and read whatever material we chose; however, the responsibility of the writer should not dissolve under the cloak of Freedom of Speech. In fact, I believe that it merely puts greater onus on writers and publishers to put forth works that, no matter how controversial, do not and will not alienate or defame entire cultural, religious or racial groups of people at the risk of sending us in the wrong direction in terms of tolerance.
"Officially" there are currently no banned books in the United States. That does not stop many individuals and leaders (both political and community) from challenging many works. There are many groups that operate on the local level to, not necessarily ban the book, but merely to keep it out of the hands of readers. The difference between what they do and "banning" the book is that they operate on the local level targeting schools and libraries to keep the book off its shelves.
Below is a very short sampling of books that were banned, at one point in the time or another, from right here in the United States (the list of banned books on an international level is, sadly, alarmingly long):
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The Shining and Carrie and Cujo (among others) by Stephen King
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Then Again, Maybe I Won't and Blubber and Forever by Judy Blume
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (my *personal* favourite)
The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Have To Go by Robert Munsch (!!!)
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (!!!)
Little Red Riding Hood by The Brothers Grimm
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice (among others) by William Shakespeare
This list is, of course, incomplete. I dare you to imagine what our literary world would be like, or what your childhood would've been like, without some of those children's stories and novels.
For a more complete list of banned books visit:
For more information about Banned Book Week visit:
they include links about where you can report a challenge of a book and what you can do to help fight censorship.
This week is Banned Book Week.