Banned Books Week!

This week is Banned Books Week. This week readers celebrate the freedom to read and bring awareness to the issue of banned books. Banning books is a process that prevents libraries from having certain books in their collection.

The American Library Association explains on their Banned Book Week site, "A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice."

You can find out more about Banned Book Week here and here. You can also see a list of some of the most challenged/banned books here. Also I found this really cool post on tumblr that has more links about Banned Book Week and Banned Books in general. You can see that HERE! I know that is a lot of links, but it is very interesting and important to know about censorship and when books get banned it hurts everyone.

Even though I don't plan on reading any banned books this week, some books that I have read and enjoyed are on the list. Luckily my parents never censored what I read when I was younger and I was allowed to explore literature to my heart's content.

Here are some popular books that have been challenged or banned.