Guest Author - Jeanne Rutgers

I recently discovered that the last week in September is Banned Book Week. The official definition of Banned Book Week is a week to celebrate the freedom to choose or freedom to express one’s opinions even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.

Basically Banned Book Week is a week to celebrate and understand the importance of the 1st amendment.

A Banned Book or a Challenged Book is any book that any group or person would like to see removed from a public library or a school curriculum. The top five challenged books of 2005 were It’s Perfectly Normal by Robbie Harris, Forever by Judy Blume, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier and Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher.

Banned Books and Challenged Books are not limited to recent children’s fiction. Many classic novels are in the top 100 Banned Books including # 5 Huckleberry Finn #6 Of Mice and Men, #13 The Catcher in the Rye, # 39 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison #41 To Kill a Mockingbird , # 52 Brave New World, # 59 , Ordinary People, and #70 Lord of the Flies .

Several authors have more than 2 Banned Books in the top 100 list including Mark Twain, Katerine Paterson, Robert Cormier, Roald Dahl, Toni Morrison, Steven King, and Chris Crutcher.

I would like to give my personal congratulations to the women who kept me reading in junior high and high school- Lois Duncan for Killing Mr. Griffin and Judy Blume for having five books on the list. I would also like to give a thank you to my parents who let me read whatever I wanted. Thanks to them and my great teachers I have read 60 of the top 100 Banned Books. Clearly I have a lot of reading to do this Fall.