Banned Books Week

The 2010 Banned Books Celebration will be held from September 25 through October .  Here’s a cute little video produced for the 2009 Banned Books Week celebration:

I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand book banning.  I mean, if something offends you, don’t read it.  And as far as kids are concerned, encouraging them to read is way more important than screening every book they pick up.  I can’t recall my parents ever paying much attention to what I read, let alone censoring my choices.  Yeah, I read a few rather *adult* books here and there but nothing I read ever negatively influenced my actions.  The values instilled by caring parents far outweigh anything a kid will find between the covers of a book.

Out of the 100 most frequently banned/challenged books of this past decade, I’ve read the following:

Harry Potter
Of Mice and Men
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Color Purple
Go Ask Alice
Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
In the Night Kitchen
Brave New World
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Kite Runner
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
A Time to Kill
Fahrenheit 451
A Day No Pigs Would Die
The Lovely Bones
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Several of these are favorites of mine and my life is richer for having read them.  If you’d like to read any of the ones I’ve listed, check your library first.  I’m a big believer in and supporter of public libraries.  If you’d like to own any of them, I’d encourage you to purchase them from a small, independent bookseller.  However, if, like me, you don’t have such as that in your area and you purchase your books through Amazon.com, do me a favor and click through from the links above.  I’ve recently become an Amazon.com Associate and apparently I can earn a few pennies from sales generated from my blogs.  Can you guess what I will most likely buy with my earnings?  Yeah, books.  Perhaps even something from the banned books list. I’m such a rebel.

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