Banned Book Week

Lovely people,

Tomorrow, (refer to date for tomorrow's date) is OWU's Fall Open house. Yippee! Excitement starts early and goes afternoon-ish. If any of ya'll are gonna be on campus tomorrow find me and say hi. I'm giving tours and then I'm on a student panel later in the day. I'm excited. Get excited.

Tomorrow also kicks off Banned Books Week. Booyah. This is one of my most favorite weeks, not because of the banning or the books or the week even, but because in one week it encompasses banning and books. So exciting. Back home, when I worked in the library, we used to get all excited about Banned Book Week. We dedicated bulletin boards to it and displays and Katie got us wonderful pins to wear around. I've extended the pin wearing to a yearly jig because mine lives on my backpack.

Banned (or Challenged) books are books that are being removed from libraries (mostly in schools) because of questionable or inappropriate content. The purpose of Banned Book Week is to bring attention to those books that make "the list".

The top ten most frequently challenged books:
1) Scary Stories -Alvin Schwartz
2) Daddy's Roommate -Michael Willhoite
3) I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings -Maya Angelou
4) The Chocolate War -Robert Cormier
5) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -Mark Twain
6) Of Mice and Men -John Steinbeck
7) Harry Potter -J.K. Rowling
8) Forever -Judy Blume
9) Bridge to Terabithia -Katherine Paterson
10) Alice (series) -Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

For more information visit the American Library Association website: www.ala.org

Have a good one.