September 26 – October 2, 2021 Every year public, school and academic libraries spend one week in September celebrating every reader’s right to intellectual freedom. And every year, around the country, ideas that are created and shared through reading come to the forefront as we look back on the year’s most challenged books. What do we mean by “challenged”? Anytime a person, group or organization requests a book to be removed or censored from view, we say that book has been challenged. People and groups challenge books for a wide variety of reasons. They express concerns over violence, language, content that they think is not suitable for kids and political viewpoints they don’t agree with. It is important to remember that these groups and individuals, while they have good intentions, can actually damage libraries and readers through censorship. While we may not agree with everything that someone writes, we don’t get to decide what others read. When someone or a group actually gets a book removed from library shelves, we call that book “banned”. And that is where libraries come in. Librarians and their organizations step up to defend those books and ensure that they have a place on the shelves for readers to find them and engage with those stories. Protecting your right as a reader is one of the important things that libraries and librarians do and that is why we celebrate it! The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom nominates an Honorary Chairperson for Banned Book Week and this year’s author is none other than JASON REYNOLDS! You may know some of his books, Long Way Down, The Track Series, All American Boys, The Boy in the Black Suit and he is also the Library of Congress’ 2021 National Ambassator to Children’s Literature. He’s a busy guy. His theme for Banned Book Week this year is “Books Unite Us, Censorship Divides Us” and the message is a simple but important one. He can explain it much better than me so watch the YouTube video below for more info! Here is how we are celebrating in the SHJH Library. When you come in with your English classes, we will be taking a look at some of the books that have received challenges over the last 20 years. You will probably recognize some of them. See if you can see yourself in those stories....
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Mrs. ScuderiI have been a school librarian for 8 years. This is my third year at Summit Hill Junior High. Archives
September 2022
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