Banned Books Week (Sept 25 - Oct 1, 2016)

Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association.

It’s Banned Books Week! This is an annual event (usually the last week of September) is in celebration of the freedom to read. The American Library Association (ALA) is dedicated to this movement. Many books are challenged and banned every year. However, due to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members, many of these books remain available. Banned Books Week is a way to recognize these books and focus on removing the restricted access to them.

The top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2015 and more are located here. How many of these books have you read?

Photo credit to ALA.

Stats from 2000-2009 

Over this recent past decade, 5,099 challenges were reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom.

* 1,577 challenges due to "sexually explicit" material
* 1,291 challenges due to "offensive language"
* 989 challenges due to materials deemed "unsuited to age group"
* 619 challenged due to "violence"'
* 361 challenges due to "homosexuality"

It’s crazy to see how most of the challenges are resulted from the Public Library. I honestly thought that the school curriculum and programming would be the highest and at least 50% of the stats.

Here is a quick shot of some of my challenged/banned books that I have on my bookshelf. For more bookish pictures visit my Instagram at www.instagram.com/kanksbooklife/

* Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling

* The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

* The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

* Twilight Series - Stephanie Meyer

* A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard

* Holy Bible

* Crank - Ellen Hopkins

* To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee

* The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

* The Hunger Games Series - Suzanne Collins

* Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy - E.L. James

* Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Visit www.ala.org/bbbooks for more information.

Have a great Banned Books Week!