1. Banned Books Week: Celebrating
the Freedom to Read
SEPTEMBER 24 – OCTOBER 1 2011
Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual
event celebrating the freedom to read and
the importance of the First Amendment.
Exercise your intellectual freedom through
the power of literature.

2. First Amendment Bill of Rights of the
United States Constitution
Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the government for a redress
of grievances.
The Bill of Rights to the Constitution was ratified on December 15, 1791

3. WHO CHALLENGES BOOKS?
Throughout history individuals as well as groups of
all persuasions, have for all sorts of reasons,
attempted - and continue to attempt - to suppress
literature and other forms of expression that conflict
with their own beliefs.
“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance
and ignorance.” ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

4. “Fear of corrupting the
mind of the younger
generation is the loftiest
form of cowardice.”
~ Holbrook Jackson

5. Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2011
1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
2. The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
3. The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
4. My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
6. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
7. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
8. What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
9. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
10. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism
Out of 326 challenges as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom

6. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: The Pennsylvania NAACP called for the
removal of the book from required reading lists (1998) across the state because of racial
language.

7. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck : Banned from classroom use in Scottsboro, AL
(1983) due to profanity. Removed and later returned to the Suwannee, FL High
School library (1991) because the book is “indecent.”

8. To Kill a Mockingbird by : Challenged in many communities for
language and racial themes. Banned from the Lincoln ,TX AP reading list
(1996) because the book “conflicted with the values of the community.”

9. “The right to be heard does not
automatically include the right
to be taken seriously.”
~ Hubert H. Humphrey

10. CHALLENGE VERSUS BANNING
A banning is the actual
removal of those materials in
the curriculum or library,
thereby restricting the access
of others.
A challenge is an attempt to

11. Challenges go beyond the
exercise of free speech. The are
an attempt to remove materials
from the curriculum or library,
therefore restricting the rights of
others.