Celebrate your freedom to read!

Pop quiz time!

What do the following books have in common?

• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
  
• The Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling
  
• The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
  
• Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
• The Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson

If you said that they are some of the most frequently challenged and banned books of the last twenty years, you are correct. Every year, there are hundreds attempts to remove "questionable" books from the shelves of libraries and schools.

September 27-October 4 is the 27th annual Banned Books Week. Banned Books Week celebrates our democratic freedom to express and have access to unpopular and unorthodox opinions. Said U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable."

For lists of the most frequently challenged books, see here, and for information about Banned Books Week, see here. Celebrate your freedom to decide for yourself by reading a banned book this week!