Banned Books Week 2016

It’s humpday of Banned Books Week 2016. This year’s focus is on diversity in literature; books that get banned or challenged are disproportionately written by diverse authors.

celebrate diversity for banned books week, september 25-october 1, 2016

For the uninitiated, Banned Books Week is “an annual event celebrating the freedom to read… it highlights the value of free and open access to information, [and] brings together the entire book community; librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types, in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.” More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982, according to the American Library Association (ALA).

Throughout the U.S. at libraries, schools, universities, and other institutions, “read-a-thons” and “read-outs” of books banned over the years will increase awareness of both censorship and the importance of the freedom to read. This year, virtual read-outs from around the country are featured on their own YouTube channel as well.

the top ten most challenged books of 2015 - titles & authors listed below image

2015 Book Challenges in Detail

(from the Banned Books Week website)

  1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
    Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
  2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
  3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
    Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
  4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
    Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
  5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
    Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
  6. The Holy Bible
    Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
  7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
    Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
  8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
    Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
  9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
    Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
  10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
    Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).

Globe-Horn Book Awards Kick Off Children’s & Young Adult Award Season

Editor’s note: This post was written by Shelley Quezada, the MBLC’s Consultant to the Unserved.

Here in New England, September marks both the beginning of fall and the start of the children’s book award season, recognizing some of the most excellent books for young readers published in the past 12 months. A perennial favorite with youth services librarians, authors, and publishers, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards Ceremony will take place on Friday, September 30 at Simmons College in Boston. The Boston Globe Horn Book Awards has been presented annually since 1967 and is considered among the most prestigious honors in the field of children’s and young adult literature.

Selections are featured in three categories: Picture Book, Fiction and Poetry, and Nonfiction. Additionally, each category includes two honor books. Unlike many American Library Association awards, the winning titles may be written or illustrated by citizens of any country as long as they are published in the United States. Awards are chosen each year by an independent panel of three judges appointed by the editor of The Horn Book.

This year’s award winners were announced by video on the Horn Book website in May. However, next Friday’s ceremony is especially exciting because it features speeches by the award winners, followed by a book signing.

2016 Award & Honor Winners

covers of the three 2016 horn book award winners. titles are listed below

Nonfiction Award Winner

Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan)

Fiction Award Winner

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams)

Picture Book Award Winner

Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph written by Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Francis Vallejo (Candlewick Press)

covers of the 2016 horn book honor award winners. titles and authors follow below in text.

Nonfiction Honor Books

  • Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M. T. Anderson (Candlewick Press)
  • Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Holmes (Candlewick Press)

Fiction Honor Books

  • The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick Press)
  • Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House)

Picture Book Honor Books

  • Thunder Boy Jr. written by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
  • One Day, the End: Short, Very Short, Shorter-than-Ever Stories written by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, illustrated by Fred Koehler (Boyds Mills Press)

Attendees at the Friday ceremony are in for a treat: with the exception of authors and illustrators Frances Hardinge, Sherman Alexie, and Yuyi Morales, all awardees will be on hand to give presentations to the audience. Many of these authors will also participate the following day at the 2016 Horn Book Colloquium “Out of the Box” that will also be held at Simmons College.