Banned Book Week

I ran a Banned Book Week promotion in the high school library a couple weeks ago. I covered all of the books in the library that have shown up on the ALA's banned book lists in brown paper. I invited students to check out and read books from the banned collection. I also wrote on the back why the book was banned and invited the student to participate by writing on the back of the book if they thought the book should be banned or not. Not many students gave feedback on the back of the book, but I did check out over 50 banned books that week. It was nice to see students checking out some of the classics like Grapes of Wrath, Call of the Wild, Catcher in the Rye, Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and several others. Of course, some students revisited Harry Potter titles and Twilight titles. The event seemed to really grab the student's curiosity and opened up conversations about what is appropriate and first amendment rights.