![\"Banned](\"http:\/\/www6b.wittenberg.edu\/lib\/blog\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/BBW_Forbidden_200x2001.jpg\" "\\"BBW_Forbidden_200x200\\"")
<\/a>Banned Books Week. All images reprinted by permission of the American Library Association.<\/p><\/div> Banned Books Week<\/font><\/strong> was started in 1982 in response to a surge in challenges to books in libraries, schools and book stores.<\/p>\n What is a challenge<\/font>? — A challenge is when an individual or a group seeks to remove or restrict access to material.<\/p>\n What is a ban<\/font>? A ban means that the material has been removed or has access to it restricted.<\/p>\n Why are books challenged?<\/font> Books are challenged for a variety of reasons. The most common are \u201csexually explicit language,\u201d \u201coffensive language\u201d and \u201cmaterials unsuited to any age group.\u201d<\/p>\n 11,300<\/font> books have been challenged<\/font> since 1982.<\/p>\n 326 challenges<\/font> were reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2011<\/font>. It is estimated that as many as 70-80% of challenges go unreported<\/font>.<\/p>\n The good news is that most challenges fail and material remains accessible. This is because teachers, librarians, administrators and others work hard to protect everyone\u2019s freedom to read. Most challenges occur at schools, school libraries and public libraries, but challenges do occur in college and university libraries.<\/p>\n Banned Books Week is a reminder to celebrate our freedom to read anything we want and to cherish that freedom.<\/font><\/strong> <\/p>\n My favorite banned or challenged book is Bridge to Terabithia<\/em> by Katherine Paterson. It has been challenged many times on the grounds of occultism, offensive language and violence. I remember getting lost in the this book as a child. The imaginations of the characters and the worlds they created just drew me into the story. It was probably also the first book that I read that didn’t have a happy ending. That made a real impact on me; the world doesn’t always have happy endings.<\/p>\n So, do you have a favorite banned or challenged book? Check out the most frequently challenged books of 2011<\/a> or the 100 most frequently challenged or banned books from 2000 to 2009<\/a> for titles. <\/p>\n Tell us about your favorite banned or challenged book in the reply box below.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n Information on this page has been gathered from www.bannedbooksweek.org<\/a> and www.ala.org\/advocacy\/banned<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is Banned Books Week again! A time to celebrate your freedom to read anything you want. Banned Books Week was started in 1982 in response to a surge in challenges to books in libraries, schools and book stores. What is a challenge? — A challenge is when an individual or a group seeks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thomas-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wittprojects.net\/library_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIt is Banned Books Week<\/font><\/strong> again! A time to celebrate your freedom to read anything you want. <\/p>\n