Since the inception of Banned Books Week, libraries and bookstores have staged local read-outs — continuous readings of banned/challenged books — as part of their activities. Now readers from around the world can also participate in the Banned Books Virtual Read-Out by creating videos proclaiming the virtues of the freedom to read, which will be featured on a dedicated YouTube channel.
Click 'Read More' (below right) to see a list of books available in Michael Library that were challenged, restricted, removed, or banned around the country between May 2012 and May 2013, as reported in the Newsletter of Intellectual Freedom. (Or click HERE to access a pdf document containing the entire list, plus an explanation of why each book was challenged, available through the Illinois Library Association's website).
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
- Feed, by M.T. Anderson
- The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
- Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
- "The Most Dangerous Game," by Richard Connell [available in several short story anthologies]
- Carter Finally Gets It, by Brent Crawford
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America), by Barbara Ehrenreich [available in Central]
- Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
- Looking for Alaska, by John Green
- The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
- Different Seasons, by Stephen King
- 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, by Elizabeth Martinez
- Beloved, by Toni Morrison
- Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
- Fight Club, by Chuck Palaniuk
- A Child Called It, by David Pelzer
- The Body of Christopher Creed, by Carol Plum-Ucci
- Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
- Romeo & Juliet, by William Shakespeare
- A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley
- Stuck in Neutral, by Terry Trueman
- The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
- Robopocalypse, by David Howard Wilson
- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Thomas Wolfe