Banned & Challenged Book Week 2013

Each year the ALA (American Library Association) hosts the Banned and Challenged Book Week to highlight awareness about the freedom to read.  As an avid reader and educator, I've always been aware of good books and who was able to read them and who was not allowed to read them, for one reason or another.  Reading books seems like such a simple thing in some ways, but talk about bravery on their part to keep talking about it!

I wanted to make sure I posted a little something at the beginning of this week, so here is my nod to Banned Book Week.  This could be a huge discussion, but let me just say that I appreciate their hard work to continue the conversation about books being banned and challenged across the country--and globe, for that matter.  I think that they help us to remember how one person's offense is another person's lived experience and/or life-changer.

Here is a great presentation to flip through with information about Banned & Challenged Book Week.

Also, here is the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books of the Last Decade

Here is a list of the Top Challenged Books from 2012.

2012

Out of 464 challenges as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
   Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
3. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group
6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence
9. The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
10. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bannedbooksweek

Have you read any of the books listed above, or will you read any of the books listed on any of the "banned/challenged" lists?