Good morning! Another yuck day here in Minnesota. The weather is cold and damp, the sky is deeply overcast. Horrible weather for bike riding (which I have canceled for the weekend) but a wonderful day for reading!
It is the day before Banned Book Week start and I have many of my contenders in house, and a few I am waiting on at the library. Earlier this week, I posted a list of the top 100 Banned Books of the last two decades. Many of you were shocked to see that titles that you know and love were on that list.
Banned Book Week starts on September 25 – October 2. My plan is to review a banned book a day as well as give as much information as I can as to why it was banned. I encourage you to join me by reading banned books over the next week. If you write-up a post about Banned Books Week,please let me know in a comment here. Tomorrow, I will set up a linky where you are welcome to link your reviews of Banned Books over the next week. I would love to stop in and see what you have reviewed.
Audio counts too, in fact I was on Audible.com last night and they too have a group of audio’s that are available for this week. I think I am going to try Fahrenheit 451 again as it is by a different reader than the one I found at the library.
I would also be very interested if there are any activities or displays in your book stores or libraries having to do with Banned Books Week. If so, please share that information here in a comment and if you are doing a banned books post, include that information in there as well.
Twas the night before banned book week and all over the table,
were books I planned to read this week, as much as I am able.
The books were chosen from the ALA list with care,
In hopes to encourage others to read these books if only they dare!
Now J K Rowling, what could you have been thinking?
Writing about a magical school – you must have really been drinking!
And Judy Blume, sure kids love to read your books,
but you are on that long list and getting dirty looks!
Irving, Bradbury, and oh yes you too Harper Lee,
some people think what a waste of a tree.
But I tell you I plan to read each with great care,
in hopes that during Banned Book Week you will join me there!
(Ok… I dabbled a wee bit in writing and poetry in school… and yeah, they were pretty much all silly like this.)
Have an awesome day! 😀
Book Journey 
I’m reveling in the 52° air here. :p It was overcast yesterday, mostly, but today’s there’s sun.
No sun here Hannah… its gloomy. 🙂
Well, I’m guessing you’ll have sun tomorrow.
My next read is Dante’s Inferno…I’m not sure if the book has ever been banned, but the video game of the same name has. 🙂 Does that count?
I would think so Trisha! 😀
This is a wonderful cause to celebrate those books that are (wrongfully!) banned….
What were they thinking?
Oh, yeah, they were up on their moral high horses!
I think it will be interesting to see why the different books were banned Laurel. I will try to mention a book each day in my Morning Meanderings that was challenged or banned and why as well. I find the reasons behind the bans in many cases so interesting.
Count me in! I’ll try to review a banned book a day too!
Oh sweet! Love that! 😀
England is full of rain, but that is nothing new. Good luck with banned book week.
Thanks Vivienne…..
ugghhh about the rain.
Being a relatively new blogger, I didn’t know about Banned Book Week very far in advance, so I don’t have specific posts in mind and haven’t had the chance to read “new” books that are banned.
However, I have read many in the past. So I think I will probably do an overall post that mentions some of the banned books I have had the privilege to read in the past and next year I will be better prepared.
As far as folks being on their moral high horse…. I don’t think that’s necessarily what gets a book banned. In some cases I’m sure it is, but honestly I’m not sure every book on the list is appropriate for younger readers, but I think we have to be diligent in knowing what our kids are reading, but they absolutely should still have the choice to read a book. I don’t think much of censorship in general and especially not where books are concerned. Just my opinion…
Deb that was where I was at last year about this time. I didnt know that banned books were actually books I may have read and didnt see anything wrong with.
I just had a discussion about this with another blogger about a book perhaps not being age appropriate and that is in some cases true, books do no not have to be available to all ages, and in some cases they shouldn’t be without a parental consent (IE. say grade school children).
I appreciate your thoughts on this Deb. 🙂
Silly or not, that’s a great poem for Banned Books week!
LOL Ladytink…. thanks 😛
I’m always amazed at the books that end up on these banned lists. Of course I am against banning books of any kind. I look forward to reviews this week.
Kathleen I really am too. I am looking forward to my reading this upcoming week.
Great poem, Sheila! A perfect pairing to banned book week. 🙂
Thank you Sami!
Sheila, you are truly the poet laureate of book bloggers! You crack me up. Send some of that rain down to Charlotte. We haven’t had rain in 6 weeks – the grass is fried.
Jill I was walking across the lawn today and actually thought it felt spongy under my shoes. I will gladly send you the rain. All you want. 😀
I love the poem! You have a talent there! 😀
Thanks Nikki-Ann – you really are too kind 😛
Great poem!
Thank you… its amazing what I can do on two cups of coffee in the wee hours of the morning….LOL 😛
I am not sure what our local library is doing this year, if anything. I’ll find out next week.
I have been following a tempest on one of the blogs I follow. It was triggered by an editorial to a paper in Springfield, MO. A professor at the local college (a relatively young man) wanted three book pulled from the local high school library and a change in what was taught. The books in question: SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson (a highly praised book about a girl who is raped in high school and doesn’t speak out until a teacher helps her) which he describes as soft pornography. TWENTY BOY SUMMER by Sarah Ockler which covers a teen dealing with the loss of a loved one. The professor’s description doesn’t mention this, rather he says it glorifies drunken teen parties and sex. The third book is SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut – too much profanity , there are people in cages having sex, and god is disrespected.
The uproar has been heartening. Many blogs have joined in the outcry and many (30 or more) are sponsoring giveaways of the three books. Go to her blog and read the series of posts related to this issue. There are also links to letters by Anderson and Ockler as well as other posts that have commented on the issue. There are also very moving posts by women who are speaking out about things that happened to them.
I wonder if this man realized he timed his letter to kick off Banned Book Week.
This is from her post:
“On another note, I brought up Scroggins’ article at the Missouri State University English Society meeting yesterday, and as a result (and in honer of Banned Books Week), we’re doing an on-campus reading from banned books on Thursday of next week!
For those of you in the area, the event will take place from around 2-6 in the outdoor amphitheater directly in front of Strong and Glass Halls.
Interesting fact: Dr. Wesley Scroggins’ office is in Glass. I wonder if he’ll see us. Hmm….Maybe we should send him a formal invite?”
If you would like to check on some of the wonderful posts this has generated, this is her site:
http://themindfulmusingsbookblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/book-bloggers-speak-out-listing-of.html This is the last post , but you can go back and start at the beginning.
Sorry this turned out to be so long.
Have a great BANNED BOOK WEEK.
Wow Pat! Look at you go! 😀
I have Speak reserved at the library. I hope it gets here in time for the Banned Book week. I really would like to read it.
We really wanted to do Banned Books Week this year, but given our hectic time schedule we didn’t have enough time to put in the research for specific banned books as they pertain to Hawai’i.
If anybody who reads this know of any Banned Books with Hawai’i ties, I’d love to hear them! 🙂
Mahalo!
I wish I knew some Alex! I will keep my eyes open!
Did you come up with that poem! I love it!
LOL Reagan…. yeah… I love changing words to songs and poems…. I actually used to write a lot of poetry in my YA days…. 😛
That’s awesome!!
I’m a word dork! 😛