Banned Books Week 2018

This week is ALA's annual Banned Books Week - a week to celebrate stories, and to support the freedom of everyone to read whatever they want. Each year, books are challenged for their content or as a result of backlash towards an author. Not all of them are officially banned (read: removed from shelves and/or pulled from publishing), and some books garner challenges long after their publication.

Here is ALA's list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2017 (I bolded titles that I've read) and a video from the Office of Intellectual Freedom describing each of them:

1. Thirteen Reasons Why written by Jay Asher
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie
3. Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
4. The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini
5. George written by Alex Gino
6. Sex is a Funny Word written by Cory Silverberg and illustrated by Fiona Smyth
7. To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee
8. The Hate U Give written by Angie Thomas
9. And Tango Makes Three written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole
10. I Am Jazz written by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings and illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas

It's important to note that many challenged books are written for children or young adults - grown adults all too often claim to know what kids want/need/like to read. Other frequently challenged books include those written about and/or by people of color and people within the LGBTQ+ community, which is also important to note. This year's theme is "Banning Books Silences Stories," and I think that's applicable to these stories in particular - ones that are silenced both within the publishing world and outside of it. Taking this theme a step further, sometimes it's not enough to not ban or challenge a book, but we must also elevate and amplify stories from otherwise marginalized communities.