Mobile Sale of ‘Banned Books’ Covers Boise Streets This Weekend

This year’s event began Sunday and runs through the end of the week, with parties and “read-outs” all over the country.

Ironically, Bradbury’s book about banning (and burning) books has been frequently banned. In the battle between a prudish mom and freedom, it’s not hard to pick sides. For the most part, it just means you have to hop onto Amazon and buy the book yourself.

The statistics certainly sound alarming. Each link represents a banned book that has been checked out by a patron during Banned Books Week. The modifier “banned or challenged” contains a lot of wiggle room, for one.

As I explained a few years back, when a public library or school purchases a book with taxpayer dollars, it compels taxpayers to support someone else’s speech – a violation of liberty. Students and the community are encouraged to attend in order to celebrate their freedom to read and be creative.

The book, published in 1972, has a history of being challenged in western Colorado. Perkins Library will have lunch available along with an edible food contest.

Perkins Library is hosting their annual Banned Books Read Out on October 1 from 12 to 12:50 on their front patio.

Books join the “banned” list for various reasons.

According to Children’s librarian Leslie Nevin, for the week patrons can come in and check out a banned book. Hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and holding events. I clicked through all 290 examples and found 27 cases that likely concerned public libraries as opposed to school libraries or school curricula. However, according to the ALA, 311 challenges that the organization knows about occurred in 2014.

Rediscovered Books will also “celebrate banned books” this week, with information about banned books, discounts on banned titles and more.

The focus of this year’s Banned Book Week, which was founded in 1982, is the censorship of young adult fiction.

Most knotty, however, is when public schools put specific books on recommended reading lists or assign them to be read. Those in attendance will have the opportunity to read aloud a section of a banned book or any book of their choosing.

Mary Kay Rummel, the poet laureate for Ventura County, will be the featured reader at Bank of Books Malibu’s Poetry Afternoon at 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 3.