Every year, the American Library Association (ALA) hosts what they call Banned Books Week. I honestly hadn’t thought about this year’s BBW until I read about the controversy over the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson for the second time in a week. (The first I heard about it was from Tina at One More Page; the second from Jennifer at Mrs. Q: Book Addict.) Those posts reminded me that it is usually at the beginning of fall when the BBW takes place, so I looked it up and found that it started this past Friday!!
So, in honor of BBW I am going to be picking up a book at the library when I head over there later today that is considered one of the most frequently Banned and/or Challenged Books. I’m thinking it will either be The Color Purple by Alice Walker or Beloved by Toni Morrison, both have been on my TBR list for awhile.
If you want to read more about the ALA’s BBW, you can go to their website for the event and check out some lists and reasons for challenges/bannings of books 😀 Click here!
If you click Books Challenged or Banned in 2009-2010, you can look at a list of books that were challenged, restricted, removed, or banned in 2009 and 2010. The file is technically part of a press kit, so it has more than just the list. But I like it all 😀 (This site has previous years’ lists, like the one I included above, if you’re interested.)
live through books... 
I’ve always known about banned books, but I didn’t realize the extent of it. I will be exploring more banned books in the coming weeks.
One thing I don’t understand about banning or challenging books is that it seems to be the same books over and over being challenged. I mean, don’t you think that someone would finally get it and say, “hey, if no one has ever managed to ban this book before and it’s had like 20-something challenges put on it, maybe that means it should be left alone”? One thing I hope to do with my kids is to encourage them to think about these sorts of books. If they want to read something, I won’t stop them. But I will talk to them before and/or after they read it to help them understand the book better. I think that’s what my mom’s problem was: she didn’t want us to read certain books because she didn’t think we would understand they’re just stories, not real. Or because she doesn’t approve of what the book promotes, case-and-point, Brokeback Mountain.
Beloved (Morrison) is considered a banned book?! Did not know that … Anyway, I think I’m a bit late, but I’m going to make an effort to read one of those books on the list too.
Yes, Beloved is apparently a book that is frequently challenged by schools (well, at least parents of students at certain schools). One school has a problem with it for these reasons: “Beloved contains incest, rape, pedophilia, graphic sex, extreme violence, sexual abuse, physical/emotional abuse, infanticide, and an extensive amount of profanity. The first two chapters contain five references to sex with cows in addition to other types of sex.” And I’m about to start reading it tonight. It sounds interesting to be because it contains those things. I don’t often read books with this sort of stuff in it.