Celebrate Banned Books Week at Plymouth Public Library

Have you read Harry Potter? The Hunger Games? To Kill a Mockingbird? Do you know that these books didn’t make it to some library and bookstore shelves without a fight?

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week and to commemorate this milestone anniversary, the Plymouth Public Library will feature a display of some of the books that have been banned and challenged over the years. Titles include I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, Earth’s Children (series) by Jean Auel, A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, Cujo by Stephen King, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. The library’s display will also feature works by persons who valued intellectual freedom including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Thoreau, Thomas Paine, and Frederick Douglass.

How can you celebrate?

• Read a banned book (here's a list of books that were banned or challenged in 2011).
• Take the kids to the library and get them one of the many children's books that have been banned over the years (kids still like Shel Silverstein right?). 
• Take to the Internet. YouTube is featuring a virtual read-out during Banned Books week, as people take their First Amendment rights to heart and read from banned books outloud.

To learn more about Banned Books Week, book challenges and censorship, visit the American Library Association website at www.ala.org/bbooks.

What's your favorite banned book?