Banned Books Week: Time to Read!

I’ve been writing about banned books and Banned Books Week over at January Magazine today. It’s one of my favorite times of the year! Time to celebrate books that have been singled out for removal from schools and libraries by reading them and drawing attention to them so that they have an even wider readership than might have otherwise been possible. Canada’s equivalent, Freedom to Read Week, takes place February 26 to March 3, 2012. I hope you’ll help me celebrate then, too.

Meanwhile, the ALA’s list of most censored books of 2010 makes a fantastic reading list for you and the children in your life. Here it is:

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group

What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit

Twilight (series), by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group