Books On Tape

Sound off on censorship! Join the national literary community from September 24 through September 30, 2017 to celebrate your right to hear powerful stories.
 

How to Celebrate Banned Books Week

1. Listen to a banned or challenged audiobook: Choose an audiobook from our featured collection and share our “I Listen to Banned Audiobooks” badge to spread the word about this important celebration.
2. Request a Censors Beware! FREE CD Sampler: Featuring an interview with Judy Blume and clips from frequently banned books, this sampler will get your community talking about the issue of censorship. Request a free sampler here.
3. Organize your own Banned Books Week event: Gather together to discuss influential challenged audiobooks or choose an audiobook to listen to together as a community.
4. Create a banned audiobook display: Encourage patrons to read and listen by creating a display of frequently challenged books. Find ideas for creating a display here.
5. Participate in the Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out: Find out how your community can submit a video and participate in the event here.
6. Find more suggestions for ways to celebrate on the American Library Association website.
7. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more Banned Books Week news. Check out #BannedBooksWeek on Twitter for more great content.

Banned Books Week Collection

Think books aren’t banned today? Think again.

Here are the Top Ten Challenged Books of 2016,
compiled by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF).

The most challenged books of 2016 list includes two YA must-listens:

Two Boys Kissing

Author: David Levithan
Read by: David Levithan

LISTEN TO A CLIP: audio

Author David Levithan narrates this story of two teen boys who take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record, in protest of hate crimes committed against their friend. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls it “a landmark achievement from a writer and editor who has helped create, in literature, a haven for queer youth.”

Praise for TWO BOYS KISSING:
* A Stonewall Honor Book
* National Book Award Longlist nominee
* A Lambda Literary Award Winner
“A bold, important novel that is bound to generate discussion and have an impact on many readers, regardless of their sexuality or gender.”—Junior Library Guild

Click here to view our featured collection of frequently challenged audiobooks, compiled from the American Library Association’s list of challenged books and the list of “Banned Books That Shaped America.”

What is Banned Books Week?
Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign that calls attention to banned and challenged books and celebrates freedom of speech. This campaign was launched in 1982, by librarian Judith Krug, former Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, “in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries.”

What are challenged books?
A challenge is “an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials” from schools and libraries. According to the American Library Association, more than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982.

Why are books challenged?
According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, the top three reasons are:

1. the material was considered to be “sexually explicit”
2. the material contained “offensive language”
3. the materials was “unsuited to any age group”

 
Challenges are usually well-intentioned—often to protect children from “difficult ideas and information.” However, censorship of constitutionally protected speech for any reason violates the First Amendment. Furthermore, some of the most frequently challenged books are widely revered classics. Although they tackle difficult subject matter, these powerful stories are also thought-provoking, inspirational, and expose readers and listeners to worlds outside their own.