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Not only is it Banned Books Week, it’s the 25th anniversary of one of my favorite literary celebrations! I’ll be blogging about some of my favorite banned books all week, so check back often.

I take book banning very seriously both as a parent, a writer, and as a board member of a public charter school. Parents cannot dictate what other people’s children can or cannot read by asking the school or a librarian to "freeze" or limit access to a book just because they don’t like it and don’t want their children reading it.

Children have full first amendment rights. Librarians cannot tell a child that something is inappropriate - even if you ask them to. It’s up to the parent to review what the child is checking out and taking home.

To find out more read the American Library Association’s Code of Ethics, Kids and Libraries: What You Should Know, Minor’s Rights under the First Amendment, and Notable First Amendment Cases. All parents should be familiar with this information.

Finally, it’s nearly impossible to outright ban a book. Books are challenged mostly by parents. They must prove that a book is either legally obscene or of no educational value. And as the proponents of the Captain Underpants series can tell you, if it gets children to read, it’s educational.

So during Banned Books Week, head down to your local library with the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books list to celebrate. Check out a few old favorites and discover some new ones as well. And while you’re at it, take the Banned Books Week Celebrating the Freedom to Read Proclamation:

WHEREAS, the freedom to read is essential to our democracy, and reading is among our greatest freedoms; and

WHEREAS, privacy is essential to the exercise of that freedom, and the right to privacy is the right to open inquiry without having the subject of one’s interest examined or scrutinized by others; and

WHEREAS, the freedom to read is protected by our Constitution; and

WHEREAS some individuals, groups, and public authorities work to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label "controversial" views, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or authors, and to purge libraries of materials reflecting the diversity of society; and

WHEREAS, both governmental intimidation and the fear of censorship cause authors who seek to avoid controversy to practice self-censorship, thus limiting our access to new ideas; and

WHEREAS, every silencing of a heresy, every enforcement of an orthodoxy, diminishes the toughness and resilience of American society and leaves it less able to deal with controversy and difference; and

WHEREAS, Americans still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression, and can be trusted to exercise critical judgment, to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe, and to exercise the responsibilities that accompany this freedom; and

WHEREAS, intellectual freedom is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture; and

WHEREAS, conformity limits the range and variety of inquiry and expression on which our democracy and our culture depend; and

WHEREAS, the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year as a reminder to Americans not to take their precious freedom for granted; and

WHEREAS, Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion 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; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that A Readable Feast celebrates the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, September 23-September 30, 2006, and be it further

RESOLVED, that A Readable Feast encourages all libraries and bookstores to acquire and make available materials representative of all the people in our society; and be it further

RESOLVED, that A Readable Feast encourages free people to read freely, now and forever.

Adopted by A Readable Feast on September 25, 2006 in Firestone, Colorado

Technorati tags: children’s books, Banned Books Week

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