The library celebrates this event every year with a different display.
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Kristin Pekoll, assistant director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, will share her unique experiences facing several book challenges (and a potential book burning!) when she served as a young adult librarian.
Until October 31, the UB Libraries will also display an banned books exhibit in the lobby of Lockwood Library that will feature a selection of recognizable classic and contemporary novels that cover a range of topics, including race, class, gender and religion.
“The numbers don’t lie-diverse books face a disproportionate number of challenges”.
“Often when you tell someone a book is banned for strong language or sexual content, their eagerness to read the book increases”, says Taddeo. Books allow kids to safely confront hard issues that they may ultimately face in the real world.
Participants and audience members who wish to do so can enter into a drawing for banned book mugs.
Light snacks will be provided at the events. In recent years, the majority of the most frequently challenged books in libraries have been Young Adult (YA) titles. Since then, more than 11,300 individual titles have been challenged in this country. OIF estimates that less than one-quarter of challenges are reported and recorded.
Many of America’s greatest novels have been the most consistently challenged works, among them: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Ulysses, Invisible Man, The Call of the Wild, Native Son, Rabbit, Run and An American Tragedy.
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Brooks Library and Ellensburg Public Library will celebrate your freedom to read with a Banned Books Week information table at the Kittittas County Farmers Market. “Voices of the Banned” in the Main Library’s Conference Center at 303 N. Laura St. N.
