Oct. 2 marked the 7th annual Banned Book Week presentation held in the Lewis and Clark Community College library. This event was held by Liz Burns and Peter Hussey and featured raffles, novel trivia games, and prize giveaways.
Some of the prizes include books, such as “Cut”, “Speak”, and “The Fault in Our Stars”, while others included gift boxes filled with Tootsie Pops.
Banned Book Week is a week in which readers can acknowledge, and pay tribute to books that fellow readers have struggled to access to read themselves.
Limited availability is commonly the case of these types of books at local libraries. This is due to upset individuals who feel that reading books that contain any violence and/or sexual content in them should only be attainable by adults, if at all.
In some cases, such as the Harry Potter series, parents wish for the kids not to read anything with magic in it due to their religious beliefs.
Many popular books including “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, “The Giver”, and “The Hunger Games”, have reached a top 100 list of Frequently Challenged books. This is a list of novels that readers have and currently attempt to ban from shelves, even decades after its release.
Readers who struggle to keep some of their favorite books in libraries encourage other readers to not allow book banning to keep them from giving new titles a try. Some banned book advocates feel that these titles, which may include a combination of violence or sexual content, can still enrich readers lives.
“If you’re going to decide that you don’t like a book, try reading it first to find out,” Burns said.
Associate Professor of Music, Peter Hussey, strongly supports readers having access to these books, believing that children who aren’t given access to some of these novels may suffer in both life, and in their education.
“If we can enlighten people to the fact that censorship does exist in this country of freedom, then we are on our way to stamping out the ignorance. Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering,” Hussey said.
For more on Banned Book Week, and other banned book information, visit the American Library association’s website, ala.org, for further detail.
Contact Darick at dearney@lc.edu
