It's Banned Books Week!

Celebrate your freedom to read this week! Here's the ALA's list of the top 10 most challenged or banned books of the past year. I'm happy to report that one of them, The Kite Runner, will be part of our AP Lit curriculum this fall. Want to see where the challenges are taking place? Check out this Google Map. Here's a few more facts about BBW from the ALA:

According to the ALA there have been 3,736 challenges from 2001-2008:

• 1,225 challenges due to "sexually explicit" material
  
• 1,008 challenges due to "offensive language"
  
• 720 challenges due to material deemed "unsuited to age group"
  
• 458 challenges due to "violence"
  
• 269 challenges due to "homosexuality"
  
• 103 challenges due to "anti-family"
  
• 233 challenges due to "religious viewpoints"
  

The ALA says that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.