For Banned Books Week (September 27-October 3) Mount Prospect Public Library (IL) hosted an event featuring City Lit Theater. The event, Books on the Chopping Block, showcased readings from the Ten Most Challenged Books of 2019. Each reading suited the given text. For example the reading from Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novel Drama focused on the Read More…
Tag: Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week 2019
Welcome to Banned Books Week 2019! This year’s theme (“Censorship leaves us in the dark.”) brings to mind–to my mind, at least–footlights and spotlights. What plays have been censored, or their productions banned? Where did these incidents happen, and under what circumstances? The book Banned plays : Censorship histories of 125 stage dramas explores such Read More…
Banned Books Week 2018
Banned Books Week (September 23-29) is here again. This year’s slogan, Banning Books Silences Stories, resonates well with information literacy. We have the Authority is Constructed and Contextual frame (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2016), for example. Who is challenging books, and in what settings do they do so? Who has the authority to Read More…
Banned Books Week 2017
For Banned Books Week 2017 (September 24-30) I read The Librarian of Basra, which was included in a 2015-2016 list of challenged books (Doyle, 2016, p. 8). This true story depicts efforts to safeguard books in a war-torn area (Winter, 2005). At the same time USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College had a photo exhibit on American women rebuilding Read More…
Banned Books Week 2016: Diversity and dialogue
Banned Books Week 2016 starts on September 25 and highlights diversity. This year I’m reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. A Knoxville, TN parent thought the book had “too much graphic information” for a high school assignment (Doyle, 2016, p.7). It can spark other sorts of conversation as well. The book tells the true Read More…
Banned Books Week 2015
Each year I post about Banned Books Week. I do so because information literacy addresses the social issues around information (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2015). Banned Books Week 2015(September 27-October 3) will focus on young adult books. Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems (WritersCorps, 2003) was challenged twice in one period. Read More…
Citing the series
Image from freeimages.co.uk A few weeks ago I shared my anime adventure with Rose of Versailles. Since the show (Dezaki et al., 2013) had numerous credits, I adapted standard APA reference format to cite it. This practice brought home two points about citations. First of all real-life sources are often messier than are the examples Read More…
Banned Books Week 2014: Experiencing the comic
This year’s Banned Books Week (Sep. 21-27) features comics and graphic novels. Ironically I covered comics last year. This time I’ll discuss one graphic novel, Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles. Oscar is a girl raised as a boy and trained as a soldier. As Commander of France’s Royal Guard she faces both scheming nobles Read More…
Banned Books Week 2013: Taking comics seriously
This year’s Banned Books Week starts Sunday, September 22. This year’s website covers, among other challenges, an attempted ban of the graphic novel Persepolis. This particular case highlights the role of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) in Banned Books Week. The CBLDF has been a regular co-sponsor of Banned Books Week. Indeed comics Read More…
Banned Books Week Past and Present
Image courtesy of the American Library Association Another Banned Books Week (Sep. 30-Oct. 6, 2012) is upon us. Since this year marks the 30th anniversary of the event, the American Library Association has an interactive timeline of notable banned books. One past Banned Books Week I took part in a live read-out. I read an Read More…