Banned Books Week: Highlights

American Library Association’s 30th annual Banned Books Week is quickly coming to an end, and everywhere we turn, there are discussions and opinions on challenged books.
According to ALA, “Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read....it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community –- librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
We, at Scarletta Press, think it is important to support the written word and people’s right to choose what they will and will not read. After all, if you don’t agree with a book, you don’t need to read it. That doesn’t mean that other people shouldn’t be allowed to.
So to celebrate the right to read, we thought we’d put together a list of some of the highlights of Banned Book Week so far from across the internet. Feel free to share your own links, photos, or personal stories below. We want to know what things you’re enjoying this week.
First off, here is a highlighted list from ALA of the most often challenged titles. Some of them may surprise you.

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

6. Ulysses, by James Joyce 7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
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11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov 12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
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15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller 16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley 17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell 18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway 19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner 20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
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23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
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73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs 74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh 75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
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80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
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84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
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88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
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97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

HuffPost Books posted a really cool interactive infographic on banned books earlier this week. Unfortunately, we can't post the entire infographic, but here is what it looks like and you can visit their page to explore it more:

ALA is also hosting a virtual read out this week. Here are a couple of our favorite videos that viewers posted. (You can find more on their YouTube channel or you can upload your own!)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Lorax by Dr. Suess

“A Light in the Attic” by Shel Silverstein

It’s no secret that we love Pinterest, so we decided to create a pin board with images dealing with Banned Books Week. Here are some of our favorites:

You can find more ideas and resources from ALA here.And remember to let us know what you're doing this week to celebrate Banned Books Week!