Actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg and the authors of the most challenged book in the United States—the story of male penguins raising a baby penguin—have joined the Virtual Read-Out of banned and challenged books that is taking place on YouTube as part of the 29^th annual Banned Books Week.  People from all over the world are raising awareness of book censorship by posting videos of themselves reading from their favorite banned books.

Whoopi reads a poem from the Shel Silverstein collection, A Light in the Attic.  Although beloved by parents and children everywhere, the book has been challenged many times: for its “dreary” message, “containing anti-parent material” and even for “encouraging children to break the dishes so they don’t have to dry them.”

Authors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell read from And Tango Makes Three, their award winning children’s picture book, based on an actual incident, that tells the story of two male penguins who hatch an abandoned egg and parent the chick.  Attacked for what critics purport to be a “homosexual story line,” And Tango Makes Three was the most challenged book in the United States in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010.

The Whoopi and Tango videos are posted at www.bannedbooksweek.org/videos as well as on YouTube.  Many authors whose books have been challenged are participating in the read-out, including Judy Blume, Lauren Myracle, Jay Asher, Chris Crutcher, Sarah Dessen, and Ellen Hopkins, with videos from David Levithan and Amy Sonnie still to come!  Other award winning and highly acclaimed authors such as Paolo Bacigalupi, William Joyce, A.S. King, Kirby Larson, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Karin Slaughter, Laini Taylor, Paul Volponi, and Sara Zarr also have videos.