Banned Book Reading Wed. night

Celebrate the freedom to read at "Well, I'll Be Banned: A Reading of Challenged and Censored ‘Tween and Teen Books” Wednesday, Sept. 21. The free event will begin at 7 p.m. in Room 149 of the Center for the Visual Arts on the ISU campus.

The reading is organized by the students in my ENG 470 class.  Students will read short selections from books aimed at middle school or teen readers that have been banned or challenged and discuss why the texts are controversial.  Students are also working on publicity.  Thanks to that work the Pantagraph ran an article yesterday about the event, "ISU to host banned book event."

The reading is being held ahead of the annual national Banned Book Week that encourages people of all ages to advocate for their right to read. 

ISU's English Department has a long history of supporting the freedom to read.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores.  It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. In 2011, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; and PEN American Center also signed on as sponsors.

ISU's Banned Book reading highlighted by national librarian association

A photograph from ISU's annual banned book this year reading made it to the big time in the librarian world.  Check out this link to the AL Focus, on the website of the American Library Association.  You'll see a photo of Jacob and I after we both read at the reading sponsored by Milner Library.  How fun to see such a grand photo!  Thanks to Toni Tucker and staff for sending the photo to the ALA and organizing the reading.

I thought Jacob did a great job reading a selection from Junie B. Jones Loves Handsome Warren.  We had reviewed the possible books to read from and he chose a Junie B. book because we have had so much fun reading Barbara Park's books.  Then Jacob's acting classes kicked in as he practiced ahead of time and worked on the timing (credit to TheatresCool and ISU's Creative Drama for kids).  His mom and I are frequently amazed at his poise and confidence in performing. 

Glad to see that Milner Library gets promoted on the ALA site -- kudos to them!  Thanks to Milner for inviting both of us to read.

Banned Book Week 2010

The English Dept. at ISU has a long history of supporting the right to read.  In keeping that tradition, I will be participating in Milner Library's Banned Book Week reading Wednesday, Sept. 29.  I'm planning on reading a selection from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, which is often cited among the top books that parents or community members wish to be banned from a classroom, school or library.  Yet, it is also one of the most celebrated American books of the last century.

The American Library Association, which is one of the sponsors of Banned Book Week, is highlighting To Kill a Mockingbird.  Here's an excerpt from why the book has been banned:

The American Library Association website features a fraction of the controversy. For instance, the book was temporarily banned in Eden Valley, Minn., in 1977 because it contained the words "damn" and "whore lady." In 1995, the Southwood High School Library in Caddo Parish, La., yanked the book out of its stacks because of "objectionable" content.

Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center based in Alabama, has a good article explaining some of the instances when people have tried to ban To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Christian Science Monitor notes that many of the books that have been attempted to have been banned in 2009 were brought up by people living in Pennsylvania and Texas.  Here's the list of the ALA's 100 most challenged books.  As a note, just because a book may have been challenged, that does not mean the book then was banned.  Most schools and libraries take the challenges seriously and send it through a detailed committee hearing process.

The ISU English Dept.'s encouragement of the Freedom to Read was started by Taimi Ranta, an English Dept. professor who was a leader in children's literature and nationally known as a source for information about Banned Books.  For more than a decade, the English Dept. organized its own Banned Book Reading night, which was inspired by Dr. Ranta.

In thinking about banned books, it's important that teachers know exactly why they are teaching a book -- why it's worthwhile, why students should read it.  If the book may be controversial, it's okay for a teacher to have a back-up if a parent objects.  But keep in mind, so many books are published each year and so many are available -- the idea is to encourage children, teens and adults to read.