Banned Books Week is Coming!

Posted by Leslie Poston Sep 15, 2006

September 23 - 30, 2006 is Banned Books Week.

Wear a t-shirt declaring your support for free speech and make people aware that books are still being banned in this century.

Read a banned book in public and talk about it with the people around you.

Talk about banning books with your students. Open discussions on the reasoning behind banning books, free speech and whether or not an idea can be an instrument of harm or change.

However you celebrate the power of the written word, be sure to honor a banned book this week.

You already know that books are constantly being banned for reasons including politics, religion, sexual taboo, race and subversiveness. Even J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series isn't safe from the shackles of a book ban. Following are the top ten classic novels that have fallen under the axe repeatedly over the years (note: this top ten list does include some non-American authors):

Ulysses, James Joyce

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

The Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe

Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Lady Chatterley's Lover, D. H. Lawrence

Moll Flanders, Daniel Dafoe

Candide, Voltaire