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| View of Davis Library's Grounds around 1 PM Monday 9.30.13 |
Last week was Banned Books Week (BBW), an annual and
national celebration the freedom to read.
To honor the occasion the Friends of the
Davis Library hosted a special “Read-Out & Eat-Out” program to raise awareness
about the problem of censorship in maintaining a free and democratic
society.
Students and faculty took turns
to read from their favorite frequently
challenged books during their lunchtime on Thursday, September 26th. Each year the Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF)
at American Library Association (ALA) documents
any reports of efforts to restrict access or ban to certain book titles. The “top ten”
books challenged for 2012 were as follows:
- Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group - Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group - Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit - And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group - The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit - Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group - Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence - The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit - Beloved, by Toni Morrison - Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence
The English Department
and Sigma Tau Delta (English
Honors Society) here at the University of Rio
Grande/Rio Grande Community College also actively participate in the Davis
Library’s Banned Books Week celebrations each year. We’d like to thank them once more for their
support as well as everyone else who came out to join us for lunch!
If you have any questions about
BBW or other Friends of the Davis Library’s activities, just… “Ask Us!”
