Brighten Youth Education Centre <\/p>\n
Tuesday, October 14, 2014 <\/p>\n
Banned Books Week is an international event, originating in the United States, that \"celebrates the freedom to read\" and highlights the importance of free and open access to information. <\/p>\n
The event regularly brings together publishers, librarians, booksellers, teachers, parents, journalists and readers of all ages. <\/p>\n
Since its launch in 1982 - in response to an increasing number of challenged titles in schools, libraries and bookshops - 11,300 titles have been challenged, according to the American Library Association. <\/p>\n
Some of the most contested titles in America last year included Dav Pilkey's massively popular Captain Underpants series, Suzanne Collins' publishing sensation The Hunger Games and Stephen Chbosky's cinematic smash The Perks of Being a Wallflower. <\/p>\n
This entire column could easily be filled by listing controversial works that have since become international classics: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World; Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart; Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species; John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath; JK Rowling's entire Harry Potter series, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to name a few. <\/p>\n
Of course not every book is appropriate for a child of any age, but governmental controls imply that parents and teachers are not informed enough to <\/p>\n
One of the aims of Banned Books Week is to foster debate and interest in reading material, drawing attention to related issues, particularly unreported cases of blatant censorship. <\/p>\n
To take away a person's ability to make an informed decision about what they read is a violation of intellectual rights and a destructive force in our society. <\/p>\n
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More:<\/p>\n
Freedom to think<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brighten Youth Education Centre Tuesday, October 14, 2014 Banned Books Week is an international event, originating in the United States, that \"celebrates the freedom to read\" and highlights the importance of free and open access to information. Continue reading