It's Banned Book Week! #SimonandSchuster #Read

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Read Across America

NEA's Read Across America starts today.  For those that don't know me or my family, books are a BIG DEAL.  We read constantly and I encourage my kids as much as I can.  I'm against banning books as well.  At any rate, I was shown this years ago and still love it, so in honor of today I'm sharing again.

READ America

If you haven't guessed by now, I'm against banning books. I grew up reading many of those books that are now banned in our school and local libraries. I loved the opportunity to read something new and then have the opportunity to DISCUSS what it meant with others. It gave me the opportunity to LEARN new ideas and concepts and to DISCOVER that not everyone was going to have my point of view. It allowed me to develop a sense of TOLERANCE for others, but allowed me the OPPORTUNITY to find out why.

Frequently challenged titles for children:
1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
3. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
4. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
5. In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
6. Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
7. The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
8. Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
9. Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
10. Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine

Frequently challenged titles for teens:
1. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
3. Forever, by Judy Blume
4. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
5. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
6. Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
7. The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
8. Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
9. Twilight (series), by Stephenie Meyer
10. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

You can check out a break down of challenged books here: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged

Summer Reading

If you weren't aware of it, a lot of places really help push summer reading for our kids. In my area there's Barnes & Noble, Borders, and the Gwinnett County Library. I've signed my kids up for all 3 and here's a brief break down of how they work.

Barnes and Noble has a 'passport' program. Your child reads 8 books, fills out their passport and bring it to your local Barnes and Noble. They'll get to pick one of the adventure books offered on the passport.

Borders has their 'Double Dare'. Your child will read 10 books, fill out their form (which a parent signs to confirm and brings it to their local Borders. They'll get to pick one of the books listed on the form there as well.

Gwinnett County Library you can register online or in person at a local branch. Parents and kids set a goal, which when achieved earns the kids a certificate. They'll also get coupons (usually to chick-fil-a or some such), bookmarks, etc.

Gotta Keep Reading - Ocoee Middle School

Book Swaps

I love book swaps! It's a great way for me to get new books without buying them (well, except for the postage of sending mine to the next person). It's also a good way to get me to read things I wouldn't necessarily read. I'm in a sort of blind book swap right now. One person coordinated it by getting our lists of books available, then having us provide her with what we wanted from the master list. She then mixed it up and matched. We don't know necessarily what we're getting other than it's from the list we sent her. :0 So far I've gotten Lisa Jackson's Final Scream and Rosemary Rogers' All I Desire. Woo Hoo!