KU Libraries Celebrates Banned Books Week

KU Libraries is urging patrons to consult their inner rebel when it comes to making their reading selections. The Libraries are observing the 2008 Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read books with controversial or unpopular views, September 27 - October 4, 2008.

To celebrate the American Library Association's annual Banned Books Week, the University of Kansas Libraries will host a "read out" on Wednesday, Oct. 1 from 10 am - 1 pm. The event will take place in front of Watson Library and will feature KU faculty, staff and student volunteers reading passages from their favorite banned books.

The American Library Association has celebrated Banned Books Week since 1982. Each year, the ALA creates a list of books have been the targets of challenge. Many of the books have not been banned, thanks to the efforts of librarians to maintain them in their collections.

Some of the most frequently challenged books include:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The most challenged book of 2007 was "And Tango Makes Three," a children's book about two male penguins raising an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple.

For more information on banned and challenged books, please visit ALA.org/bbooks.

For a retrospective on banned books created by KU Libraries in the 1950s and reissued on the Libraries' Web site in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Library Bill of Rights, please visit http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/bannedbooks/bannedbooks.html.