Celebrating the Freedom To Read

This week we celebrate our freedom to read books of our choice and the importance of the First Amendment. Every year thousands of books are challenged. A challenge is when a person or group attempts to remove a book from a library or curriculum to restrict the access of others. A ban is the removal of the material from the library or curriculum.

This week the American Library Association will promote awareness of the challenges to library books and materials as well as celebrate our Freedom of Speech.

Over the years many books have been banned or challenged, you can find a list of banned or challenged classics at the American Library Association. Some of my favorite books that have been banned are:

Of Mice and Men
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Lord of the Flies
Gone With the Wind
The Call of the Wild
Ethan Frome


Some more recent children's books that have been challenged  are:
Harry Potter
And Tango Makes Three


So to celebrate Banned Book Week my daughter and I watched a reading of And Tango Makes Three, which was the #1 most challenged book of 2010. If you believe in the freedom of our First Amendment, you can watch the video too.




Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said it best in 1953 with these words, "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. "