The Bay Path University community celebrated 2019’s Banned Books Week with their 10th annual Read-Out, where students, faculty, and staff were invited to read, share, and discuss banned books that made a personal impact on their life.
Book selections included Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, 1984, The Lorax, Eleanor & Park, Black Boy, Beloved, Kite Runner, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and more. Those who chose to talk about their selections echoed the same sentiment – how life-altering it can be to see pieces of yourself reflected in the pages of a book.
Literary censorship is rooted deeply in history all over the globe, with many governments advocating at one time for the confiscation, burning, and eradication of books that spoke against accepted religious, political, and cultural norms. Today, books aren’t banned (or burned for that matter), but instead are challenged, where a formal complaint is filed with a library or, most often, a school requesting that a book be removed because of its content. Harry Potter, 13 Reasons Why, and And Tango Makes Three have all made recent headlines for parents and school officials challenging the books and asking them to be removed from places where children and young adults can access them.
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries, and is meant to highlight the value of free and open access to, and the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. This year’s theme was “Keep the Light On: Censorship leaves us in the dark.”
