ECPI celebrates Banned Books Week 2007 - Celebrate Your Freedom to Read!!

Reflect on your freedom to read, cherish it, and by all means, read what you want to read. As the author of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, said, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

First observed in 1982, Banned Books Week reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. The event is sponsored by various bookselling, publishing, and library associations.

Each year the American Library Association compiles a list of Banned Books. The 2006-2007 list is posted on the ECPI Library Display Board or see below. The most challenged book for 2006 was “And Tango makes Three”, about two male penguins parenting an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple. You can find this book in the juvenile fiction section of your public library.

BANNED BOOKS 2006/2007
"And Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group;
"Gossip Girls" 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" 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.