Celebrate Banned Books Week 2007

September 29–October 6 is Banned Books Week this year (it always creeps up on me). It's not too late to start reading something great that somebody else doesn't want you to read. The American Library Association site has much more.

The ALA keeps several different lists, but among the books "challenged, restricted, removed or banned" in 2006-2007 were:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou
The Awakening By Kate Chopin
Girl with a Pearl Earring By Tracy Chevalier
Manufactured Consent By Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman
The Chocolate War By Robert Cormier
Fat Kid Rules the World By K.L. Going
Real Girl/Real World: Tools for Finding Your True Self By Heather M. Gray and Samantha Phillips
100 Greatest Tyrants By Andrew Langley
Kaffir Boy By Mark Mathabane
Beloved By Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison
The Things They Carried By Tim O'Brien
The Learning Tree By Gordon Parks
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World By Michael Pollan
Various books in the Harry Potter series By J.K. Rowling
Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck
The Adventures of Mark Twain By Mark Twain
Slaughterhouse-Five By Kurt Vonnegut
Black Boy By Richard Wright

And…

Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Oh, the irony!

The graphic above is the adult poster for Banned Book week. Here's the young adult and children's versions.

Regardless of how you do it — reading a book, reading a book to a kid, thanking a teacher or librarian — it's a nice way to finish off the week.

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)