Banned Books Week started in 1982 as a celebration sponsored by the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom.
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She added that the proceeds from the sale would go towards supporting the City of Johannesburg Public Libraries, especially the reading development programmes Battle of the Books, Story Skirmish and Science Scuffle. Too often, that freedom is challenged by individuals who would censor important and challenging books rather than embrace them.
Into the River won Book of the Year at the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, but was not been picked up for publication outside of New Zealand before its ban.
They are being celebrated this week for being on the banned books list.
Classics such as “The Great Gatsby” and “Gone With the Wind”, along with contemporary novels such as the “Harry Potter” series and “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” are among the books banned from a few schools and public libraries in the US over the past two decades.
The freedom to read is the freedom to learn, to imagine, to challenge your own beliefs, and to see the world from a new point of view. The lists are compiled based on media and voluntary reports of requests to remove titles from schools or libraries.
For example, a middle school in Columbus, Mississippi banned Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” because of its “sexually explicit” content.
Linda St. Clair, U. event coordinator and librarian, said although books are challenged, it is a rare occurrence for books to be banned in Utah.
The most frequently challenged books, Stone says, are books intended for young audiences, or books that have become a part of young adult curriculum, like “The Catcher in the Rye” or “Of Mice and Men”.
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“This is how I heard about the book, to begin with – I was actually on holiday with my family, and it made me want to read the book”.
