Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Banned Book Week (Sept. 21-27, 2014).

My school participates in the American Library Association’s Banned Book week each year by reading a picture book to the entire school that has been challenged or banned. We’ve read Tomie de Paola’s Strega Nona and Justin Richardson’s And Tango Makes Three. This year, we will read Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach. This lovely story, based on the author’s childhood memories, was challenged in Spokane, Washington elementary schools in 1994 because it was thought to stereotype African Americans by showing them eating fried chicken and watermelon and drinking beer (from Robert P. Doyle’s excellent resource Banned Books: challenging our freedom to read. Chicago: ALA, 2104, p. 271).

Discussing issues surrounding book banning and challenges can be pretty difficult for children in grades K-3, even 4th graders. Concepts such as Freedom of Speech are too abstract or technical. So I try to boil it down to something simpler: this is a day when we celebrate having the right to choose what to read.

With older children,  the learning and the discussions are very interesting and lively. Using materials from the ALA’s Banned Book Week and the National Council Teachers of English web sites, we can discuss Constitutional issues, why books are challenged or banned, what constitutes a challenge or a banning, and so on. Nevertheless it doesn't sink in until I show them the challenged books. You should hear the gasps, the shouts of dismay, the outrage ... their beloved authors-Roald Dahl, Judy Blume,  Lois Lowry, and way too many more-challenged? Banned? Why?  Understanding the reasons behind the challenges is often quite a struggle-even for adults.

 I ask the students to understand that even though there is a right to read freely, some people, with good intentions of protecting children, will challenge this. It’s up to us to protect it.

After the read aloud, we follow up with a D.E.A.R.  (Drop Everything and Read) where the entire school reads a book of their choice for fifteen minutes. It’s a wonderful and positive way to end this event.