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Welcome to Banned Books Week (September 29 to October 6, 2007)! This year’s theme from the American Library Association is “Ahoy! Treasure Your Freedom to Read and Get Hooked on a Banned Book.” (Click here for more information on Banned Books Week from the ALA.)

First observed in 1982, Banned Books Week reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. The event is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the American Library Association (ALA), the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Association of College Stores.   It is endorsed by the Library of Congress Center for the Book.

I hope you take an opportunity to read a banned book or two either by yourself or with your kids. In 2006, I reviewed Judy Blume’s Forever, Captain Underpants and A Catcher in the Rye, and asked people to Stop picking on poor Harry Potter. But there are (unfortunately) many other banned books to read, especially in the YA (young adult) section.

Here’s a list of the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2006:

• And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group
• The Gossip Girl series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language
• Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language
• The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
•   Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity
• Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group
• Beloved by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence

Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Of Mice and Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by John Steinbeck and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics) by Mark Twain.

I think I’ll check out The Chocolate War for myself and And Tango Makes Three for Lucie. What banned books are you planning to read this year?

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