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It's Banned Books Week!

Friday, September 26, 2014   (0 Comments)
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Booksellers around the country are participating in Banned Books Week, the national celebration of the freedom to read. Hundreds have created displays of banned and challenged titles, and many have organized events.

 

Bookmans in Arizona, which sponsors its own Anti-Censorship Month in September, created events for both adults and kids, including a James and the Giant Peach Party, a Hogwarts House Party and a Free an Idea Author Fair. At its Flagstaff store, Booksmans provides a setting and props for customers to take "mugshots" of themselves with their favorite banned books.

 

In Chicago, City Lit Books invited local students to read from Alan Moore's Watchmen and other censored books.  In San Francisco, Books Inc.'s book clubs and story time events have been reading banned and challenged works. Books Inc. released a video as the capstone of its celebration.

 

Two booksellers from Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, helped get things started last week on KPFA, a radio station in Berkeley, California, by discussing their fight against the censorship of emily m. danforth's The Miseducation of Cameron Post. The book, which is the story of a young lesbian, was dropped from a summer reading list in the school district that includes Rehoboth Beach.

 

Susan McAnelly, the manager of the bookstore, and Madison Bacon, an employee who just graduated from the local high school, were interviewed on the Project Censored radio show, which is rebroadcast on the Pacifica radio network. Explaining why Browseabout agreed to distribute 250 donated copies of the book to students, McAnelly said, "We took the

stance that as an independent bookstore our job is to put books in people's hands. We're very passionate especially about putting books in kids' hands-in teenagers' hands." The program is available online, and the 12-minute segment featuring the McAnelly and Bacon begins at 34:56.

Independent bookstores are enthusiastic supporters of Banned Books Week, but as small businesses many do not have the resources to participate. To make it as easy as possible, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), the bookseller's voice in the fight against censorship, has joined the Ingram Content Group in distributing a free promotional kit that contains everything a bookstore needs to create a display, including a full-sized poster, "Caution" tape, bookmarks, stickers, and a flyer with detailed information about last year's book challenges. One hundred and sixty bookstores ordered the kit.  

 

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