It’s Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is from September 27^th to October 3^rd. It is a time to celebrate the freedom to read whatever you want! Since 1982, Banned Books Week has been occurring annually during the last week of September. This week was created in response to overwhelming amounts of challenges to books in various institutions such as libraries, bookstores and schools. To this day, there are still objections or challenges to books, which sometimes results in the banning of a material from an institution.

Every year, Banned Books Week brings together people who object to the banning of books and support the freedom to access information as well as ideas. This week also draws attention to places where censorship is occurring or attempts to censor books. This year’s theme is “Censorship is Dead”.

These are some classic books that were historically banned or challenged:

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – challenged for containing sexual content.
2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker– banned for containing sexual content and profanity.
3. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger – banned for containing profanity, sexual content and violence.
4. Beloved by Toni Morrison – challenged for containing violence, topics of racism and sexual content.
5. 1984 by George Orwell – challenged for being pro-communist and containing sexual content.

You can learn more about Banned Books Week here:

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/banned

If you would like to read some previously banned books, take a look at our reading list below:

This is a list of books that were once banned, burned or challenged.

View Full List