Okay. You probably know by now that I love lists. I organize my thoughts in lists, I create to dos with lists, I stay productive with lists.... You get the picture. So, I love lists. But one of the things I LOVE is book lists. Oh man, they make me so happy! Now, when you combine a book list with one of the things I hate--censorship--well, then you create a must-read reading list. It's pretty much a match made in heaven!
This is Banned Books Week. It's a time to celebrate the freedom to read and push back against censorship. Every year the American Library Association releases the list of top 10 challenged books for the year. This year the book most adults didn't want young people to read was George by Alex Gino. Check out the Top 10 of 2019. Here's one thing you can count on...Harry Potter usually turns up! What does this celebrating Banned Books Week mean to you as a reader? Think about these questions:
Who gets to decide what you read? Why?
Should someone other than your parents decide?
How does the idea of censorship make you feel?
Are any of your favorite books on the list below?
Can you imagine life without that story?
My challenge to you is to pick one (or more) of these ways to celebrate the freedom to read:
Read a banned book (I'm adding 20* to my list from below!)
Speak out about censorship
Create something unrestricted
Express the freedom to read in style
Write about your rights
Watch, listen, and learn from others
Thank those who defend the freedom to read every day of the year
This year ALA also released the Top 100 Challenges of the Decade (2010-2019).
I looked over the list and highlighted the titles I've already read. My number is 40 (and I'm adding to my list now*). What's yours?
Happy Freedom to Read!
Ms. Anderson
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
*Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Looking for Alaska by John Green
George by Alex Gino
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
Internet Girls (series) by Lauren Myracle
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
*I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Bone (series) by Jeff Smith
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss
Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg
*Alice McKinley (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
*Scary Stories (series) by Alvin Schwartz
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
*Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
*It's a Book by Lane Smith
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer
Bad Kitty (series) by Nick Bruel
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
*The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey
*This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl by Tanya Lee Stone
Beloved by Toni Morrison
*Goosebumps (series) by R.L. Stine
*In Our Mothers' House by Patricia Polacco
Lush by Natasha Friend
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Holy Bible
*This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar
House of Night (series) by P.C. Cast
*My Mom's Having A Baby by Dori Hillestad Butler
Neonomicon by Alan Moore
*The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
*Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle
Dreaming In Cuban by Cristina Garcia
Fade by Lisa McMann
*The Family Book by Todd Parr
Feed by M.T. Anderson
*Go the F*!# to Sleep by Adam Mansbach (read 9/30/20)
*Habibi by Craig Thompson
House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
*Jacob's New Dress by Sarah Hoffman (read 9/30/20)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan
Stuck in the Middle by Ariel Schrag
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal
1984 by George Orwell
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
Awakening by Kate Chopin
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
Glass by Ellen Hopkins
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Madeline and the Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans
*My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis
Prince and Knight by Daniel Haack
Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology by Amy Sonnie
*Skippyjon Jones (series) by Judith Schachner
So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins
The Color of Earth (series) by Kim Dong Hwa
The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter
The Walking Dead (series) by Robert Kirkman
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
*Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S Brannen
. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks