BELLOWS FALLS — The Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) is celebrating Banned Books Week, Sept. 30 through Oct. 6, an annual celebration of the freedom to read. Drawing on the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, local librarians work to ensure that everyone is free to choose from a diversity of viewpoints and an array of possibilities in selecting reading material.
The RFPL is hosting a display and encouraging community members to visit and check out a banned book. Librarians will talk about banned books in a special program produced for WOOL 100.1 FM and FACTV throughout the week.
Each year, the American Library Association receives hundreds of reports of materials that people asked be removed from school or library shelves. The top 10 challenged books of 2011 were:
• ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
• The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
• The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
• My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
• Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
• Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
“Sometimes the books that challenge the minds of children the most are the books that some people feel are inappropriate for them,” said Youth Services Librarian Sam Maskell. “Children can only grow if we give them the opportunity to read all types of literature.”
Above all, Maskell encourages parents to get involved in what their children are reading.
“While libraries may argue against book banning we know that there is material publicly available that parents would not want their children to encounter,” she said.
“For that reason, this library maintains that parents - and only parents - have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children - and only their children - to library resources."
Banned Books Week in 2012 is different in that censorship isn't just limited to books anymore. In the past year, librarians have seen publishers restrict libraries from lending eBooks and federal legislation that limits Internet freedom.
The Rockingham Free Public Library opposes all forms of censorship, arguing that the right to choose what we see, hear, and read is one of our most cherished freedoms. The library staff said that while not every resource is right for each reader, there is danger in allowing others to decide for everyone in the community what materials are appropriate.
Library staff invite the community to stop by the library during Banned Books Week, check out a banned book, or take home a list of banned books. For more information, contact the library at 802-463-4270 or go to www.rockinghamlibrary.org.