We are pleased to have featured so many authors in the Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out whose works have been banned/challenged. Today, we are delighted to highlight the many other award-winning authors who have participated.  Check out the videos below!

2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipent Paolo Bacigalupi, author of Ship Breaker, voices his concerns over the effect of censors in a free society.

William Joyce, author/illustrator of The Guardians of Childhood series, talks about the stupidity of censorship. Joyce won the Louisiana Writer Award in 2008.

2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient A.S. King, author of Please Ignore Vera Dietz, reads a passage from one of her favorite banned book, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.

Kirby Larson, 2007 Newbery Medal winner for Hattie Big Sky, reads from Susan Patron’s The Higher Power of Lucky.

Andrea Davis Pinkney, 2001 Coretta Scott King award winner and author of Bird in a Box, talks about the importance of free expression and the freedom to read.

Laini Taylor, National Book Award Finalist and author of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, reads from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Paul Volponi, Best Book Young Adult and Quick Pick Award winner, and author of Crossing Lines, discusses how he has received letters “from parents about his use of language is wrong and his effect on the youth of America is bad.”

Sara Zarr, National Book Award Finalist and popular young adult novelist, reads from Robert Cormier’s I Am the Cheese for the Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out!