Banned Books Week – September 26 – October 3, 2009
The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, The Color Purple, The Bible, The Call of the Wild, Brave New World, Of Mice and Men, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Koran … What do these books have in common? All have been banned or challenged by groups or individuals seeking to have them removed from classrooms or libraries.
Last week at the North Dakota Library Association annual conference, I had the pleasure of listening to a keynote address by John Berendt, whose book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was the subject of a challenge at Beulah High School last fall. Mr. Berendt reminded librarians of the importance of what we do to promote and defend the right to read. He also talked about the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the “quiet censorship” that goes on under that act.
Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. It highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.
We invite you to stop by the BSC Library to see our Banned Books Week display and to check out a book … Maybe even one that’s been banned.
Say You’re One of Them: Stories 
Read it! Read it! 