One of my favorite weeks of the year is Banned Books Week. During this time, I wear my banned books t-shirt, button and bracelet. We create displays in the library to highlight the books that have been banned or challenged within the past 100 years or so. It makes for great discussions/debates/arguments with patrons. Although I have been pleasantly surprised with the feedback in the Children’s Room. Many patrons are surprised and even almost-outraged that certain books have been have made ALA’s list (ALA=American Library Association.)

We have 3 different displays in the library: Children’s, Teens & Adults.

The Children’s display was created by my talented library page, Ali.

Books included in the display: And Tango Makes Three, In the Night Kitchen, The Giver, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, The Giving Tree, Heather Has Two Mommies, Where the Wild Things Are, King and King, The Lorax, Huckleberry Finn, Captain Underpants and lots more.

For the Teen display, I added a chain and lock to give my rush-job poster a little style.

The list for teen or young adult banned & challenged books is pretty long. Some books I included this year were: The Hunger Games, Speak, TTYL, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Harry Potter, Sex Education, The Geography Club, Rainbow Boys, Annie on My Mind, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, A Wrinkle in Time, Jacob Have I loved, The Chocolate War, Jumping Off Swings, Crank and others.

What are your favorite banned books? Click on the ALA list link above to see how many you’ve read!