Banned Books Week at PTHS
Sponsored by the PTHS Gay Straight Alliance
Censorship
We're sharing these resources with English Department teachers, hoping that you might take the time to discuss this important issue with your students. The American Library Association, ALA, began Banned Books Week in 1992, in order to highlight the value of free and open access to information and the harms of censorship. Each year ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom collects reports, published through media and submitted by teachers and librarians across the country, and compiles their annual list of most often "Challenged Books". This year's top five titles were challenged due to LGBT characters, (Top 10 Challenged Books for 2016)
No matter the reason and no matter the medium, prohibiting the exchange of information at an organizational, societal and/or community level, is not only detrimental to democracy as a whole, but also has the potential to harm the individuals affected by limited access.
*See ALA's definitions for: Challenge, Banning, Censorship & Intellectual Freedom.
https://youtu.be/e1u9tjjUz5o
Sharing
Bookman's, an independent "entertainment exchange" store, with locations throughout Arizona, created the above video, which effectively highlights well chosen readings from often challenged books.
https://youtu.be/69rd-7vEF3s
For John Green Fans...
and even the few of you who aren't, here he does a great job sharing his take on banning of Looking for Alaska and YA books in general.
Yes, there's always another point of view...
and I wouldn't be doing my job as a librarian if I didn't share it. From Points of View Reference Center. (If accessing from a non school issued computer, log in: (all lower case) your town, password: (all lower case) your team.