Banned Books Week 2016 (Sept 25-Oct 1)

It is that time of year again. We are coming up on Banned Books Week. Below I will list the information and some links to help you gather information and get started on your own.

Banned Books Week starts September 25 and goes until October 1.
Tag #STANDUPFORYOURRIGHTTOREAD
Theme: Diverse content; which is defined as those resources that contain:
- “non-white” main and/or secondary characters
- LGTBQ main and/or secondary characters
- Disabled main and/or secondary characters
- Issues about race or racism
- LGBTQ issues
- Issues about religion, which encompass in this situation the Holocaust and terrorism
- Issues about disability and/or mental illness
- Non-Western settings, in which the west is North America and Europe

Here are some of the books that are on the challenged/banned list that I own. They are all in the diverse category. Even though there is a theme for the week does not mean you have to read just those. Read any banned/challenged book. Heck just read a book that week! You would be surprised to see what books make it to the list. Below I’m going to give a brief reason why each of the books in my picture were challenged.

George by Alex Gino
- Christian groups feel this book confuses kids because it deals with a 10 year olds emotions with being transgender
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- Some parents of incoming freshmen at Antioch High School want an assigned summer reading book pulled from the school’s shelves and the curriculum because it uses foul, racist language and describes sexual acts.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- The Color Purple has plenty of critics. It’s often targeted by censors for its “troubling ideas about race relations”, “man’s relationship to God”, African history, human sexuality, extreme and graphic violence, offensive language, and “unsuited to age group”.
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- This installment in the wildly popular frontier series by real-life pioneer Wilder was banned from a South Dakota classroom because of comments the characters in the book made about Native Americans.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
- Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series was number 8 on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books list for 2000-2009. In 2007, the Catholic League campaigned against The Golden Compass, declaring that it promoted atheism and attacked Christianity, in particular the Catholic church.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- A complaint from a parent in Wallingford, Connecticut, has prompted the district’s superintendent of schools to remove Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower from the required reading list for high school freshmen. The parent, Jean-Pierre Bolat, complained about the book’s depiction of homosexuality, sex, masturbation, and a “glorification of alcohol use and drugs,”
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- A parent complained that the book includes sexually explicit material and homosexual themes.