Banned Books Week Read Out

Come join us celebrate our freedom to read! The South Jersey Writers’ Group is holding a banned books read out at the Cherry Hill Public Library, 1100 Kings Highway North in Cherry Hill, NJ, on Saturday, Sept. 27 from 2 – 4 pm. We'll be in the tiled area on the lower level under the grand staircase.

“As writers, we have each read a book that inspired us to pursue our craft,” says Mieke Zamora-Mackay, event organizer.  “It’s quite likely that very book has been challenged for removal from a public or school library, summer or school reading list.  Imagine if that book wasn’t available to you then?  We’re encouraging everyone to bring a banned book with them and read it in public!”

Through the years, many titles have been challenged for a myriad of reasons.  Please follow this link to view a list of the most challenged books from 2001 to the present.

 
Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read.  Typically held during the last week in September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information.  Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community – librarians, booksellers, publishers, teachers, journalists, and readers of all types – in shared support of the freedom to seek and express ideas, even those considered unorthodox or unpopular.

Begun in 1982, Banned Books Week reminds Americans not to take the freedom to read for granted.  Since 1990, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has received reports of 9,500 attempts to remove books deemed by some as inappropriate.