September 25 – Banned Books Week

Posted on September 25, 2013


The last week of September is always Banned Books Week, which celebrates the freedom to read.

Weird, huh? Everyone is always trying to get us to read, read more, read more books. Don't we already have the freedom to read?

Well, there have been times and places when people were so upset at a particular book that, not only did they not want to read it, they didn't want their kids to read it. And (I hate to say) they don't even want other people, and other people's kids, to read it!

And so they try to get the book banned from a library, school library, or schoolroom.

What sort of books have been banned?

According to the American Library Association, the Harry Potter books are the most-banned books in America. Apparently some people think that the magic spells in them are read. (Trust me, they're not.)

Other popular books such as The Hunger Games and the Captain Underpants series have been banned.

Classics such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, have been banned.

A popular children's author once told all of us at a writing workshop that one of his books was banned from a public library because it included the color green in several descriptions. 

The color green! 

According to a newspaper article about the banning, someone thought that the color green was code for Paganism. Not that there is anything wrong with Paganism...but I can't even get around to saying that, because I am so busy saying:

“REALLY? The color green? What book DOESN'T include the color green???”

It used to be that communities sometimes gathered together books that they didn't want people to read, and they burned them! A great philosopher and author named Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Every burned book enlightens the world.” What do you suppose he meant?

For more on Banned Books Week, check out the official website

Also on this date:


Anniversary of the passage of an amendment that took 74,003 days to be adopted!!!





Plan Ahead!


And here are my Pinterest pages on October holidaysOctober birthdays, and historical anniversaries in October.


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