Celebrate Banned Books Week!

Sunday, September 22, 2013 marks the thirty-first anniversary of Banned Books Week!

Sponsored by the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, and many other organizations, Banned Books Week  is an annual celebration of the freedom to read and of individual expression.  It is also an opportunity to bring attention to the challenges to and restriction attempts of materials in libraries and bookstores across the nation. 
Members of the book community, including librarians, teachers, booksellers, comic book artists and journalists come together each year to advocate against censorship and the free expression of ideas.

Check out the Banned Books Week You Tube channel and find out what authors such as Junot Diaz, Delia Ephron, Sherman Alexie, R.L. Stine and others have to say about book censorship.

You can get involved by participating in a new initiative through Twitter.  For the first time this year, Twitter parties will help promote the message of Banned Books Week.  Parties will be held from 11am to 1pm Central time on Monday, Sept. 23, and Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 1pm to 3pm  Central time.  Supporters are urged to tweet using the hashtag #bannedbooksweek.

More information about the Twitter parties and other ways to be involved in Banned Books Week is available on the Banned Books Week website, http://bannedbooksweek.org/.