Treasure Your Freedom to Read

1. Treasure Your Freedom to Read Banned Books Week: an opportunity to educate students about one of our most precious freedoms in a democracy and the role of libraries Open a book, open your mind @ your library

2. Banned Books Week • ALA poster Open a book, open your mind @ your library

3. First a bit about our Constitutional Rights to Intellectual Freedom • poster Open a book, open your mind @ your library

4. Intellectualfreedom • The ability to express and explore diverse opinion Open a book, open your mind @ your library

5. Intellectual freedom • Right to seek information Open a book, open your mind @ your library

6. Intellectual freedom • Right to choice information from all points of view Open a book, open your mind @ your library

7. Banned Book Week • Reminds Americans not to take this precious Right of Intellectual Freedom for granted. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

8. Why? • Freedom of speech and press require an understanding that others have different opinions and ideas. • However throughout world history, those with different ideas have been sought out and silenced. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

9. Book Burning • Books and libraries have been burned as a method of controlling thought and knowledge throughout world history. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

10. 1933 Nazi bonfires • Thousands of books smolder in a huge bonfire as Germans give the Nazi salute during the wave of book-burnings that spread throughout Germany. http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bookburning/20thcentury/nazigermany/nazigermany.htm Open a book, open your mind @ your library

11. Year 1943 • Midway through World War II, the U.S. Office of War Information used this poster to help Americans understand why we were fighting. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

12. Still book burning happens today and …even in America. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

13. Fahrenheit 451 • by Ray BradburySet in the future when all books are banned, people called “firemen”burn confiscated books. Ironically, This book was banned as "dangerous."[451 degrees is the temperature that paper catches fire.] http://library.dixie.edu/new/whybanned.html Open a book, open your mind @ your library

14. But as the author of Fahrenheit 451, • Ray Bradbury, said, "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." Open a book, open your mind @ your library

15. Censorship • The act of getting rid of information that others consider not acceptable. • Books are censored when they are banned or altered. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

16. What is meant by banned? • A book that has been banned has been removed from the shelf. All readers are denied access to the material. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

17. James and the Giant Peach • by Roald DahlThis book was banned in a Florida elementaryschool because "it promotes the use of drugs, tobacco, and whiskey." Open a book, open your mind @ your library

18. What is meant by altered? • “Objectionable words are erased • whiting or blacking out words • concealing or changing illustrations Open a book, open your mind @ your library

19. In the Night Kitchen • by Maurice SendakWhen toddler Mickeyenters the Night Kitchen, he loses his pajamas and spends much of the story naked. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

20. Baseball Saved Us • by Ken MochizuchiChallengedbecause of a racial slur used in the book.http://www.pacificcitizen.org/content/2006/national/jun16-lin-baseball.htm Open a book, open your mind @ your library

21. Why are books challenged? • Sometimes books are challengedbecause they have offended someone. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

22. The Lorax • by Dr. SeussBanned in the Laytonville, California School District ongrounds that this book "criminalizes the forestry industry." Open a book, open your mind @ your library

23. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble • by William Steig In 1977, the Illinois Police Association urged librarians to remove the book, which portrays its characters as animals, and presents the police as pigs.The American Library Association reported similar complaints in 11 other states. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

24. Little House in the Big Woods • by Laura Ingalls WilderBanned for being "racially offensive" to Indians. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

25. Why are books challenged? • Books are usually challengedby people with good intentions-to protect others, usually children, from difficult ideas and truths. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

26. Pinkerton, Behave! • by Kellogg, Steven. Challenged, but retained despite complaints that the image of a masked burglar pointing a gun at woman is too violent for young readers. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

27. A Wrinkle in Time • by Madeline L'Engle,one of the 1990'smost-challenged children's authors. This Newbery book was banned because it "challenges religious beliefs". Open a book, open your mind @ your library

28. Who has the right to restrict? • “Parents-and only parents-have the right and the responsibility to restrictthe access of their children-and only their children-to library resources” Free Access to Libraries for Minors, an interpretation of the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights Open a book, open your mind @ your library

29. Harry Potter (the entire series) • by J. K. RowlingChallenged based on the claim that the books promoted witchcraft, however the parents making the charge failed to prove that the series promotes the Wicca religion thus does not constitute advocacy of a religion. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

30. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret • by Judy Blume author of Tales of a Fourth Grade NothingIt’s about girl stuff…changing bodies and a girl’s search inchoosing a religion. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

31. American Library Association (2004) announces author Judy Blume ranks as second most censored author of the past 15 years • “It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” — Judy Blume, author of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

32. What does she mean? • Publishers have told writersto change wording in fear of censorship • Books have been pulled from the shelf in fear of complaints • Writers hesitate to create unique and different works Open a book, open your mind @ your library

33. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry • by Mildred D. Taylor A parent in Florida demanded that this Newbery novel be banned from all schools in Seminole County. She objected to its depiction of Southern racism, which she considered inappropriate for kids.The award-winning book depicts the life of a African-American family in rural Mississippi in the 1930s and uses the “N” word. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

34. Challenged Books • Although they were the targets of attempted bannings, most of the books featured during BBW were not banned, thanks to the efforts of librarians to maintain them in their collections. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

35. Captain Underpants • By Pilkey, Dav challenged for encouraging childrento disobey grownups. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

36. Goosebumps (series) • by R. L. Stineoften challengedin libraries for their sometimes-violent content. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

37. We still have the freedom to read… Open a book, open your mind @ your library

38. How to Eat Fried Worms • by Thomas Rockwell“The idea of eating worms as part of a bet is thought to be disgusting by some. The book has been the frequent target of censors.” Open a book, open your mind @ your library

39. A Light in the Attic • By Shel SilversteinSome claim that it "encourages" childrento break dishes in order to get out of having to dry them. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

40. The Stupids (series) • By Harry Allard, authorof Miss Nelson Is Missing!Challenged because “it might encourage children to disobey their parents." Open a book, open your mind @ your library

41. Bumps in the Night • by Allard, Harry Dudley Stork and his friends search for the cause the spooky noises in his house. Challenged for references to the super-natural. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

42. Where the Wild Things Are • Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things Arehas been challenged for involving "witchcraft/supernatural elements." "witchcraft/supernatural elements." Open a book, open your mind @ your library

43. The Giver • by Lois LowryA Newbery Award winner, this futuristicbook is about a “perfect” community where anyone who is different disappears. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

44. The Bridge to Terabithia • by Katherine PatersonAnother Newbery Award winner, banned due to “discussion of death”…“swear words”…“disrespect of adults, and an elaborate fantasy world” which was “felt might lead to confusion.“ • http://www.library.ucla.edu/college/nwsevnts/exhibits/banned99/index.htm Open a book, open your mind @ your library

45. TarBeach • by Faith Ringgold Challenged for “stereotyping African-Americans as eating fried chicken and watermelon and drinking beer at a family picnic.”This same book won the 1992 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for its portrayal of minorities. Open a book, open your mind @ your library

46. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language • Challenged because it included the definitions of words considered “obscene” Open a book, open your mind @ your library

47. and the series most loved… Open a book, open your mind @ your library

48. and despised…America’s Favorite Kindergartener In 2004 Barbara Parkwas selected as one ofthe American Library Association’s10 Most Frequently Challenged Authors Open a book, open your mind @ your library

49. Junie B. Jones(series) • by Barbara ParkThe spunky kindergartener (first grader in more recent volumes)is prone to troublemaking, often calls people names and isn’t averse to talking back to her teachers. And though she is the narrator of the stories, she struggles with grammar: words like funnest and beautifuller are the mainstaysof her vocabulary. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/fashion/26junie.html?pagewanted=all Open a book, open your mind @ your library

50. So… I invite you to read a banned book. Open a book, open your mind @ your library