Monday, October 1, 2012

Celebrating Banned Book Week


It's Banned Book Week this week! I loved Banned Book Week because it reminds people that good books are worth fighting for.

The first time I experienced censorship was in 8th grade. Our English teacher always taught The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but the year before I entered her classroom, there was a kerfuffle about it not being appropriate. Of course, we all immediately went out to read it because obviously if parents didn't want us reading it, then it was awesome.

Eventually the parents succeeded in getting Huck Finn out of our classroom. So during my year, she taught Fahrenheit 451.

It wasn't until I was older that I realized what a deliberate and awesome choice that was!

What we can learn from this is, that if a book is banned that means it is GOOD. So go check out the list of frequently challenged books from the ALA, and try to read them all. Or maybe go see "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" in theaters now.