Banned Books Week is always the last week in September. As in previous years, I ran a contest for Banned Books Week! I took a photocopied page from a popular banned book that the students would know, shredded it into thin strips, and put it in a jar for them to guess. Students guess using a QR code on the top of the jar that takes them to a Google Form. If you can't tell, the book is The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey. We had over 100 students enter the contest. Special congrats to Olivia, who correctly guessed the book and is the winner of a $5 Sweet Frog gift Card! Students are always SHOCKED at the books I select for the banned books contest. They can't believe that they would be banned or challenged. It opens up great conversations about books and censorship. I recently read a great article about Banned Books from the National Coalition Against Censorship that I would encourage you to read, too. My favorite quote from it is: “This week is not just about all the books that were challenged or banned. It is also a reminder of the real people whose self-expression is suppressed and whose stories are silenced. It is a shout out to every reader who is told that characters they identify with are unworthy. Every Banned Books Week is a recognition of those who are made to feel unsafe so that others can avoid conversations they find difficult and maintain their status quo.” Of the top 10 banned books of 2018, many of them were banned or challenged for LGBTQ+ content. Look at this video from the ALA showcasing the top 11 most frequently banned and challenged books from 2018: I am proud to say that I have almost all of the 2018 banned books in my collection!
Have you ever had a book challenged? What book and why? Drop a comment below and let's talk about how we can work to end censorship!
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Photo Credit: Ace Schwarz Literature featuring LGBTQ+ characters has been around since ancient times and spans a wide variety of cultures... So why is it still a taboo subject for some school libraries? It isn't that it isn't available... there are plenty of LGBTQ+ titles out there across all grade levels! It isn't for lack of quality; many of the titles that are out there have won awards. There is no easy answer as to why LGBTQ+ lit is not as prevalent as it should be within our school libraries; however as school librarians, we have a duty to ensure that ALL of our students are represented in our collections. As we all know, good literature should function as a mirror to allow students to see themselves represented in stories. When we provide literature with LGBTQ+ themes, characters, and plots, we normalize the child with two dads, the girl who is exploring her crush on another female classmate, and the boy who knows he was born into the wrong body. These children need to see themselves represented in literature. Books also serve as a window to see into the lives of others... the cisgender, heterosexual children (and teachers!!) around them need to see those children represented in their reading as well. It is critical that we understand the issues and problems that our LGBTQ+ students handle on a daily basis. We know that reading builds empathy; what better way to do so than include a variety of LGBTQ+ literature in the library? But which books are right for your patrons and their needs? After all, five out of the ALA's top eleven most frequently banned and challenged books from 2018 made the list primarily due to LGBTQ+ content. Recently I helped an amazing colleague, Ace Schwarz (they/them), with a project they had in mind. They post frequently on Instagram, and they recently had the idea to post elementary, middle, and high school book lists for their followers. The goal was to post several books per day for elementary, middle and high school. This worthy project was eye opening for both of us; we quickly discovered that many books featuring LGBTQ+ characters or plots were not actually written by authors who identify as LGBTQ+. A little background research proved that this is the generally the case for a variety of reasons; however, if the books we are handing to our students are to be authentic, they need to be written in the author's #ownvoices, a hashtag started by author Corinne Duyvis. (For more on this topic and why it is important, check out this article!). Without further ado, I present to you the hard work put together by my colleague. Major props to them... this list represents many, many, MANY hours of work and research! This project contains:
If you aren't sure where to begin with understanding LGBTQ+ Issues, or what all those letters even mean, here is another great resource that Ace created - the ABCs of LGBTQ+! For further reading on the topic, please check out GLSEN's national reports on many aspects of school safety and student life. Reports I would recommend specifically would include:
Finally, please check out this amazing set of resources from the American Association of School Libraries on Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries. These resources are perfect for defending your book choices to community stakeholders who may show resistance. Research has shown how much representation matters. We need to make sure that our LGBTQ+ students feel safe and visible. I challenge you to take a good look at your collection and the books it contains. What message are your books sending to your students? How can you better support them? Are you an ally to the LGBTQ+ community or a silent bystander?
I don't often get on my soapbox; however, when it comes to the safety, health, and well-being of my students, I am very passionate about protecting those who are our most vulnerable... and I will ALWAYS defend my students' right to read! Please feel free to comment below; I am always looking for feedback... especially additional titles that you would recommend that a school librarian should purchase for their collection! I'll do almost anything to "sell" a book to a reader. It doesn't matter if it's a student or adult, old friend or stranger in the grocery store - I'll try my best to be a #bookdealer and find that one perfect book for a reader. Thanks to Pinterest, I took every student at SPMS on a date with a book - several books - in February! BAHAHA! It was epic and amazing and FUN! I started with an overview of what speed dating was and how it worked... the kids were horrified at the amount of social interaction dating required:
Ahh, youth. Next, I went over the "Mrs. Hurley's 6 Rules for Dating" which (mostly) apply to both humans and books!
Then we moved into the speed dating area: Complete with red tableclothes, LED candles, heart decorations on the tables, vases with fake roses (shout out to the Dollar Tree for all the decorations!)... I even turned down the lights to "set the mood"! But by far the worst was the music. I streamed some of the worst covers of the world's cheesiest love songs. Some of my favorites were:
To be clear, I enjoy some of these songs... but the covers were AWFUL. And I blasted them as loud as my speakers would go! The students had 3 minutes with each "date". At the end, they had to rate their dates and write some notes about the date and why they gave it the rating that they assigned it. Click HERE for my rating sheet sample - this one was for 8th grade. Feel free to copy and remake as needed. Below are pictures of some of my kids mid-date. It was SO MUCH FUN! Hands down probably one of the most loved activities I've put together for my students! The best part was setting up those "second dates"... here is just one sample email I had from students immediately after classes. I received over 100 hold requests for books that were "dated" during this activity! One book had so many holds that I ordered 3 "emergency" copies (in addition to the two I already had) sent from Amazon and processed them the next day to put them in the collection... there were more than 15 requests just for that book!
It's important to note that not all of the books I put out were brand new. Many of these were great titles that I noticed weren't circulating. I am happy to say that all of those books are really feeling the love now! I even "sold" some of these books to staff members - some of whom weren't ELA teachers! They fell in love just by walking through and wondering what in the world was happening in the library... and they left with a hold on a book they couldn't imagine life without. YES. What books would you put out for your students? Comment below and let me know!! Banned Books Week is September 25th - October 1st, 2016. This annual event celebrates your right to read and your right to freely access information! To celebrate Banned Books Week, I created a bulletin board (found on Pinterest, not my original idea). Here it is: It includes some infographics about banned/challenged books, as well as a list of the top 100 most challenged books. The students are fascinated by the paper-chain lock... it's the little things, I suppose! Why promote banned books? It's important to draw attention to the idea of censorship - we cannot allow materials to be censored for our students. It is important that they read a wide variety of materials from a diverse spectrum of writers. I have a deeply held personal belief that materials in the library should be free choice. I absolutely understand the importance of putting a book that is "just right" into a child's hand, but I also know that it's vital for the kids to have choice. Just check out this article: How to Motivate Students By Letting Them Choose Books Many adults, while well-intentioned, destroy the love of reading in kids by limiting the selection of books that they can read. This comes in many forms - by telling a kid to put a book back that looks too hard for him/her, by limiting students to a certain book basket or a certain Lexile level, or by telling students they can only select books from a certain part of the library (eg Fiction, or Biographies). All of these are forms of censorship and must not be practiced in a public school library. Does this mean we should just let students pick whatever books they want with no input or thought? No. We certainly can encourage students to select books that are closer to their reading level, or guide them toward books with content that we know they will enjoy. We can allow them to take the book that is too difficult or too easy while also helping them find one that it just right. HOWEVER, the ultimate decision should be with the children... if we are to raise life-long readers, we MUST allow them to self-select their texts. *STEPS OFF SOAPBOX* So if you're still with me, let's work on promoting banned books! The ALA has an amazing collection of digital downloads all available for free! Just click the link above and check it out. I also have a contest running this month... I took the first two pages of a banned/challenged book, shredded it up one line at a time, and I put it in a jar so students can guess the title. The contest is open all month. The winner will win a free book of his/her choice and a lunch pass for themselves and a friend for the week. Here is the setup: Can you guess the banned book? It's one of my FAVORITES!
So in September, make sure you exercise your freedom to read what you want, when you want! Read a banned book! |
About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
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