Banned Books Week 2015

Hey, all. It’s that time of year again. Banned Books Week! Earlier this month I was interviewed about Banned Books Week and banned books in general by the good folks at Fabulously Feminist. It’s a pretty in-depth interview and Callie asked great questions, so go check it out. If you don’t feel like hanging on my every word, feel free to scroll down and read the list of ways you, yes you, can get involved with Banned Books Week.

Batgirls, Boy Wonders, and Beyond: A Parent’s Saga

Though often thought of as the domain of kids, many comics these days are written and marketed to adults. As I’ve said before on the blog, assuming a genre or medium is automatically kid-friendly or mindless fluff is where many parents go wrong. It’s also how many things that expect a level of maturity of their young readers, or were never intended for young readers to begin with, get banned. Or how you end up like that mom who accidentally bought her son a pornographic pop-up book because she assumed Game of Thrones was like Narnia.

BANNED BOOKS WEEK: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Today marks the first day of Banned Books Week, an annual event meant to draw attention to book challenges/removals/bans and other censorship or intellectual freedom issues. This year the event, which runs from September 21-27, will focus specifically on comic books/graphic novels. I’ve already written extensively about the unique history and issues involved in comic book censorship on this blog, so I thought I’d offer a round-up of the highlights, as well as Banned Books Week resources and ideas on how you can get involved. It’s also frequently challenged horror author Stephen King’s birthday today, so let’s hear it for banned horror, banned comics, and the twice-damned banned horror comics! Long may ye remain in our libraries.

Another Year of Banned Books

Merry met, my dear readers. It seems my blog has been around for another year. And it has been quite the year here at the Bound and Gagged Banned Books Blog. One of my posts was Freshly Pressed, another was quoted in The Huffington Post, and we went from about 50 followers to over 2,000. So whether you’re new to the blog or have stuck by us since the beginning, thank you. Thank you for reading, sharing, commenting, and taking the time to come to our little corner of the internet.

This year we also gained two excellent writers. Hannah and Victoria Lepore were both kind enough to grace the blog with their thoughts, rants, and insights, joining me and Elliot Oberholtzer on our banned book crusade. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all three of them for contributing to the blog, for taking the time to write such thoughtful reviews, and for being generally awesome human beings.

I hope you’ll all stick with us for yet another year of banned book reviews, censorship news, and the occasional nerdrage. Banned Books Week is fast approaching, so check back for more Bound and Gagged goodness (not nearly as kinky as it sounds). In the meantime, enjoy this look back at the last year of banned book reviews.

Virtual Read-Out

Here’s a video from the Virtual Read-Out of The Book Thief author Markus Zusak reading from his favorite banned book. You can watch the whole playlist on the Banned Books Week YouTube channel. Since it’s FridayReads today, tell me what you’re reading or what your favorite (banned) book is. What book changed your life? What was your favorite book to take out of the library or your favorite thing to do there? Would your life be any different if you hadn’t had access to that book?

Wanted Read or Alive

Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association

Happy Autumn, readers! We’re mid-way through Banned Books Week, so here are some fun ways to get involved. To start, there’s always the Banned Books Week website, where you can find a list of Banned Books Week events by state, participate in the Virtual Read-Out, and find out more information. There are also resources for artists, booksellers, teachers, kids, librarians, teachers, publishers, students, and writers.

If you e-mail a picture of yourself reading your favorite banned book to Random House Library, you’ll be entered to win a Random House Library tote full of banned books. Find out how here or follow them on Twitter. Sharp-eyed readers may recognize my dog reading Bridge to Terabithia on their BBW Pinterest board.

You can download free BBW graphics here if you want to spread the word on your own blog or change your Facebook profile/cover photo to raise awareness. To see where notable challenges/bans have taken place in the US, check out this map.

MORE BANNED BOOKS FUN:

Banned Books Week: Guest Post From Bound and Gagged

Fellow blogger Miss Articulate invited me to do a guest post on banned books over at Articulate and Intricate. Without further ado, here’s a crash course in banned books, Banned Books Week, and the Comics Code Authority. Banned Books Week artwork courtesy of the American Library Association.

Articulate & Intricate

Hi, all! This is Shannon from Bound and Gagged, a blog dedicated to banned books and other censorship/intellectual freedom issues. I was asked to talk a little bit about banned books, censorship, and how it pertains to genre fiction and the Comics Code Authority.

As some of you may know, this week (September 22-28) is Banned Books Week, an event started in 1982 to bring awareness to banned books and book challenges. The event is largely focused on book/library challenges within the United States, as it is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), as well as a number of other American organizations, including the Library of Congress. However, book banning is a global issue and Amnesty International has brought the event into a more global context.

The topic of book banning is a broad one with a long and complicated…

View original post 1,958 more words

Avast, Matey! Cap’n Slappy Talks About Reading on “Talk Like A Pirate Day”

A belated Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day! This memory, of reading a book one had been discouraged from attempting, seemed right up Banned Books Week’s alley. The amount of books banned for being “unsuited to age group” is staggering and oftentimes children are kept from something like Anne Frank or Zlata’s Diary out of concern that they are too young for its darkness or won’t entirely understand it. The same goes for classics deemed too complex for children or YA novels parents often naively feel their teens aren’t ready for. Sometimes we need to trust kids and teens to know what they’re ready for or mature enough to handle. They just might surprise you.

Judy Blume: Censoring Puberty

http://www.makers.com/judy-blume/moments/censoring-puberty

Today is the beginning of Banned Books Week, when libraries and individuals celebrate intellectual freedom and draw attention to banned books/book challenges. I’ll be posting more throughout the week, but I thought we would get the ball rolling with some words from Judy Blume. A force to be reckoned with, both for her decades of classics and her dedication to fighting censorship, Judy Blume’s work has touched countless lives and influenced other writers and creators who have gone on to touch more lives and get banned themselves. So I tip my hat to her today. Thank you, Judy, for all that you’ve done and all that you continue to do.

A Year of Banned Books

Hello, readers! Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my blog. That’s right, we at Bound and Gagged have been bringing you reviews, sharing censorship news, and accidentally showing up in your porn searches for a whole year now.

I’d like to take this chance to thank you, the readers, for taking this journey with me. You made this possible. Well, you and WordPress. And caffeine. It takes a village.