While books do make great gifts, that's not why they are all wrapped up. The display has a different purpose. This week, libraries and book stores across the country are celebrating Banned Books Week. Banned books are books that have been pulled from the shelves of libraries and schools because people think some of the content is inappropriate. Hundreds of books are challenged, or questioned, every year.
You might be thinking, "If banning books is bad, why should we celebrate it?"
We celebrate the fact that, even though so many books are questioned or challenged, many of them remain on library shelves and classroom reading lists. We celebrate because we live in a country where, thanks to the First Amendment, every citizen has the right to access information. And we celebrate because, despite attempts at censorship, great books are still being written and read by people of all ages.
Some of the books on display this week are the Harry Potter series, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Captain Underpants series, and Olive's Ocean, but there are many, many more books that have been challenged or even banned in past years.
More information is available online at http://www.ala.org/ or http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/.
What's your favorite "banned" book?
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