Banned Books Challenge

The very cool Steph Su is hosting a Banned Books Challenge. I don't have time to read a ton of books for this challenge, but I wanted to take part because I think it's an important challenge. Books are challenged all the time and when they are, they take away great books that readers need all because one person (or a group) decided they knew what was best for everyone. If a parent doesn't think a book is right for their child, it might annoy me and I might roll my eyes, but as long as they understand that that decision is for their child only, and not an entire population, I'm OK with that decision. Readers have all sorts of reading ability, taste, maturity, and they can decide what book fits them best. And on one should decide for an entire population what is OK and not OK to read.

So I'm taking a stand against banned books and participating in the Banned Books Challenge. The challenge runs from now until October 15.

My goal is to read three challenged or banned books. I'm starting with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, because this book was recently banned from a school in my state. And yes, I went and bought a copy and and happy that there are people asking to read it at my library-and we have a waiting list. Funny how when you ban a book to prevent people from reading it, it just makes people want to read it more.