Happy Banned Books Week! We are excited to raise awareness, celebrate diverse voices, and advocate for the freedom to read. To celebrate kicking off Banned Books Week, Macmillan is offering a special e-book pricing for frequently banned titles that will include 25% off at digital library retailers. Other flexible purchase models are available as well, Know More » […]
Tag: banned books
Banned Books Week 2021
Happy Banned Books Week! This year’s theme is Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us, emphasizing the importance of how books reach across boundaries and build connections, whereas censorship creates barriers. Check out some resources to help make this Banned Books Week the most powerful it can be. Here are some Free Downloads, Display Ideas, and Know More » […]
Banned Books Week 2018
Did you know that ELEANOR & PARK, SOME GIRLS ARE, and THIS ONE SUMMER have all been banned or challenged? Censorship is happening and it is infringing on the right of readers. Good thing librarians fight for our fREADdom! Banned Books Week (Sept 23-29) is happening now and it’s the perfect time to re-read and recommend all Know More » […]
Banned Books Week 2017
Did you know that ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell was the 10th most challenged book of 2016? It’s true! Censorship is happening and it is infringing on the right of readers. Good thing librarians fight for our FREADOM! Banned Books Week (Sept 24-30) is happening now and it’s the perfect time to re-read and recommend Know More » […]
Banned Books Week 2016
Happy Banned Books Week, lovely librarians! This is the week (Sept 25 – Oct. 1) to re-read and recommend all your favorite banned and challenged books. This year’s theme is diversity and the lovely folks at BBW have put together a list of frequently challenged books with diverse content, as well as resources for librarians Know More » […]
#FridayReads: Banned Book Week Edition!
Happy Friday friends! We hope you've had a great week celebrating Banned Books.
For today's #FridayReads Talia and Anne have chosen their favorite banned books:
Talia is glad she's not in the crazy house after re-reading
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs
Burrough's story of growing up under the most extraordinary circumstances is "hilarious, freaky-deaky, berserk, controlled, transcendent, touching, affectionate, vengeful, all-embracing.... It makes a good run at blowing every other [memoir] out of the water." (The Washington Post)
Anne is re-living high school English after re-reading
THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Long before desire was all Shades of Grey it was Scarlet Red. Nathaniel Hawthorne's greatest work tells the story of Hester Prynne's adulterous affair and the struggle to create a new life with dignity and repentance in Puritanical times.
opens in a new window
Who would want to censor this adorable fellow?! Not us. Enjoy your weekend!
[...]
Banned Books Week 2013: Adventure!
Normally on Thursdays we're all about Thrillers, but since it's Banned Books Week, we're talking about Adventure--specifically those of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain is well known for his wit and satire--two traits on full display in his classic novels THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER and its sequel, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. The titular characters get involved in all kinds of hijinks: murder is witnessed, deaths are faked, treasure is stolen... and that's only the first book!
HUCKLEBERRY FINN, commonly named one of the "Great American novels" is often called into question over racial stereotypes and frequent use of one particular racial slur.
Keep sharing your favorite banned books with us @MacmillanLib using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek2013.
[...]
Banned Books Week 2013: Foreign Cultures
Today we check out Banned Books in Foreign Cultures:
STEPPENWOLF by Hermann Hesse
Hesse's best-known and most autobiographical novel, STEPPENWOLF blends Eastern mysticism and Western culture, portraying one man's struggle to deal with a divided society and a divided self. During World War I, Hesse was labeled a traitor as a result of his antiwar sentiments, anti-propaganda behavior, and pacifist attitude, resulting in his work being banned in Germany from 1939 to 1945.
THE OLD GRINGO by Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes is one of the most influential and celebrated voices in Latin American Literature, and THE OLD GRINGO is one of his greatest works. In it, Fuentes imagines the fate of the American writer/soldier/journalist Ambrose Bierce and of his last mysterious days in Mexico living among Pancho Villa’s soldiers.
CANCER WARD by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Solzhenitsyn's semi-autobiographical novel examines political theories, mortality, and hope through the lens of a small group of cancer patients in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. The patients' malignant tumors represent their moral responsibility in the suffering of their fellow citizens during Stalin's Great Purge, when millions were killed, sent to labor camps, or exiled.
What other international Banned Books do you enjoy? Let us know @MacmillanLib using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek2013. See you at today's Twitter chat from Noon - 2 pm!
[...]
Banned Books Week 2013!
Banned Books Week (Sept. 22-28) is upon us once again librarian friends!
This is the week to read and re-read all your favorite banned and challenged books.
If you're feeling inspired to read aloud, we highly recommend that you submit a banned book reading video on the Virtual Read-Out page on YouTube. And don't forget to join the conversation on Twitter today (Monday) 9/23 from 10 am - Noon and Wednesday 9/25 from Noon - 2 pm using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek2013.
Let's keep fighting for our FREADOM!
[...]
Starred Review for See Now Then
Talia and I have a girl crush on Jamaica Kincaid. We spent a little time with her before the Freedom to Read Foundation's Banned/Challenged Author event at Seattle Town Hall during ALA Midwinter. She completely won us over in, oh, approximately four minutes.
Kincaid joined us in Seattle to talk about her journey as a reader and a writer and the experience of having her book, LUCY, challenged in a Pennsylvania high school as "most pornographic." More on that event here.
We're excited to see that SEE NOW THEN, Kincaid's first novel in ten years, has some great press already. The New York Times ran a piece called "Never Mind the Parallels, Don’t Read It as My Life" in which Kincaid clarifies how much of her new book is autobiographical (spoiler: only some). And Publishers Weekly interviewed Kincaid in "The Age of a Mountain: PW Talks with Jamaica Kincaid" about the phrase "see now then" and her experience creating characters of all ages.
"Kincaid has created a measured, bewitching, and metaphysical fable, as well as a venomous, acidly comic, and plangent tale of love, betrayal, and loss that is at once slashingly personal and radiantly universal in its mystery, passion, and catharsis." -Booklist (starred review)
[...]
