Blogroll

Banned Books Week: Handling book challenges in the schools

More than any other institution, schools are the focus of challenges to books, whether because of required reading in a course or simply because a certain book is available in the library. The Sioux Falls School District has specific procedures in place to address challenges if they arise. While the procedures differ somewhat depending upon […]

Banned Books Week: Handling book challenges at the library

Although South Dakota doesn’t appear to have faced any book challenges recently, the same source indicates 70 to 80 percent of challenges are never reported. As part of Banned Books Week, I think it’s important to know how the institutions in your community would deal with a challenge should it arise. Today, I’ll take a […]

Banned Books Week: Giving students the freedom to read

One of the organizations on the front lines of book challenges is The Kids’ Right to Read Project, a collaboration between the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the National Coalition Against Censorship. It is stunning to me not only some of the books it has joined the battle over, but the reasons advanced […]

Somebody PLEASE tell me this is only hype

Perhaps ironically apropos for Banned Books Week is the following: “When author J.K. Rowling was proposed as a recipient for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, [President George W.] Bush nixed the idea because Rowling’s Harry Potter series ‘encouraged witchcraft.’”

Truly a WTF??? moment. Now whether Bush himself canned the idea is open to debate. The […]

Banned Books Week: 50 banned books that everyone should read

As part of the posts this week in support of — and in the futile hope of eliminating the need for — Banned Books Week, here’s one opinion on 50 banned books everyone should read.

The list is broken down by categories and while I may not necessarily agree with a particular book’s placement in […]