Library Celebrates Banned Books Week

The is celebrating the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, which shines the spotlight on censorship issues.

The event is held annually during the last week of September. Books featured are ones that have either been challenged—or possibly banned—across the country.

Last year, 348 challenges were reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom; however, the ALA believes that many more challenges aren't reported, according to the organization's website.

Reasons for challenges include sexual content, racism, religious viewpoint, violence, inaccuracy and offensive language, among others.

According to the ALA's official Banned Books Week website, these were the top 10 challenged books last year:

• And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
• The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
• Lush, by Natasha Friend
• What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
• Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie
• Twilight (series), by Stephenie Meyer

The ALA also has a list of the most frequently challenged books of the 21st Century. The list includes classics like JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and well-known series like the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling.

The has a display of commonly challenged books, and a notice on the city's website encourages readers to ask library employees at the Adult & Teen Information Desk for recommendations.