Category: Banned Books Week
Detained for his Words — Sri Lankan Poet Ahnaf Jazeem is an Amnesty International Banned Books Week Case
For Banned Books Week each year, Amnesty International highlights stories of writers, publishers and artists under attack for their published work. In this blog post, we delve into one of this year’s six featured cases – the Sri Lankan poet Ahnaf Jazeem. He has been detained without charge or trial since May 2020. Read on to understand the reasons for his arrest and how to help with his case and for the other featured Banned Books Week cases.
Banned Books Week 2021 Events Across the Country
Banned Books Week is just around the corner (Sept. 26 – Oct. 2, 2021)! Here’s how some libraries, bookstores, and museums are celebrating!
Join the #BannedBooksChat With Jason Reynolds!
Join Banned Books Week and Honorary Chair Jason Reynolds on Monday, August 2, at 4:00 p.m. EDT for a #BannedBooksChat on Twitter!
Apply Now for a Banned Books Week Celebration Grant
Show off your best anti-censorship programs and displays, and apply now through June 4 for a Banned Books Week Celebration Grant.
Jason Reynolds Named Inaugural Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week has never had an honorary chair before but unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures. Jason Reynolds will be the first honorary chair of Banned Books Week and he is excited about it! This year marks the 39th celebration of Banned Books Week since its first celebratory year in 1982. The 2021 theme is Books Unite Us; Censorship Divides Us and it will take place from September 26th to October 2nd.
15 Unforgettable Responses to the 2020 Banned Books List from Authors, Librarians, Readers
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom recently released the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020. Here are some reactions and responses from authors, librarians, and readers.
#BannedBooksWeek In Action on Saturday
Here’s a snapshot of how we spent Saturday thanking those who defend the freedom to read. #BannedBooksWeek in Action invites readers to participate in a different activity that spotlights literary activism each day of Banned Books Week.
#BannedBooksWeek In Action on Friday
Here’s a snapshot of how we spent Friday learning from others. #BannedBooksWeek in Action invites readers to participate in a different activity that spotlights literary activism each day of Banned Books Week.
#BannedBooksWeek In Action on Thursday
Here’s a snapshot of how we spent Thursday writing about our rights. #BannedBooksWeek in Action invites readers to participate in a different activity that spotlights literary activism each day of Banned Books Week.
#BannedBooksWeek In Action on Wednesday
Here’s a snapshot of how we spent Wednesday expressing the freedom to read in style. #BannedBooksWeek in Action invites readers to participate in a different activity that spotlights literary activism each day of Banned Books Week.
One thought on “Banned Books Week”
The Poetic Depiction of Truth Should Never Be Silenced.
Anne Frank stunned me with the ugliness of the Nazis and what hate and prejudice can produce while I was an innocent 4th grader. The murder of six million Jews. How else would I have known the world, but through Anne’s words? I grew up on a little Idaho ranch. It remains my favorite book because it painted an ugliness, I could not imagine but knew was real.
To Kill a Mockingbird shook my bones when I was but thirteen. How could there be such injustice? There was and is. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, “Florida locks up a higher percentage of its people than any democracy on earth.” Black inmates outstrip Caucasian inmates by more than 2 to 1.
In Polk County, The Kiterunner is in “a time out.” (One of the finest books I have ever read.)
In Flagler County, All Boys Aren’t Blue has been stripped of its rightful place on public library shelves. How does the parent of a gay boy react to that? “Step into the shadows. Deeper. Deeper, still. Pretend you are not who you are.” How cruel to disenfranchise a boy from his inner self.
I read The Bluest Eye when I was fifteen. It was as close and as handy as my school library. The vivid story remains with me today. A young girl named Pecola fled violence at her home. If only she had blue eyes, she believes, then she wouldn’t be ugly. It is heartbreaking and wrong. It is banned in many states and claims the argumentative spotlight at school board meetings across the country.
Oh, by the way, in many states Captain Underpants (that outlandish hero who gets many a reluctant child to read) is banned. I mean underpants that are front and center in every general reading magazine and commercial any child could look at. (And at Walmart, or in their drawer.)
And then comes the Pulitzer-winning Maus. A young man trying to understand his father who was in Auschwitz. It is a comic strip, but real, raw, and very readable. We see stacks of emaciated naked bodies piled up like trash in historical photos. But here there is a naked mouse that has created the book banners to beat their chests.
I say, “Ban the Book Banners!”