While on a recent holiday in the US, I visited a library with some interesting displays.
Outside Fairhope Public Library were colourful displays, as it was taking part in an arts festival. Shops and businesses were invited to ‘yarn bomb’ the streetscape. (See below).
Inside, to coincide with Banned Book Week, (September 25 − October 1, 2016), they had an interesting collection of books on display – books which had at one time or another been banned in America.
With this in mind, when I returned from holidays, we set up our own (quick) Banned Book Display in the High School Library. There were some interesting titles which came up in the searches library staff completed – including some books which are now considered ‘classics’ and others with a popular following among young readers.
Banned Books Display – Fairhope Public Library
These are some of the titles we found to include in our display:
Where the Wild things Are / The Lorax / Grimm’s Fairy Tales / Alice in Wonderland / The Fault in the Stars / To Kill a Mockingbird / Paper Towns / Tin-tin in America / Of Mice and Men / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory / Brave B=New World / Harry Potter / the Curious incident of the dog in the night-time / the Catcher in the Rye / Bridge to Terabithia / Little Brother / Lord of the Flies / the Absolute Diary of a Part-time Indian / the Hunger Games / Siddharta / the Diary of Anne Frank
Some questions to consider:
Can you think why some of these were banned? Who should decide? Does banning just make the book popular? do the bans reflect the times?