Insomnic Dreams

September 26th through October 3rd is Banned Books Week and is dedicated to bringing awareness of ongoing censorship and promote freedom of speech.

Head over to BannedBooksWeek.org to get more information about how prevalent book banning and censorship really is and how you can help prevent it.

You will also find many events scheduled at your local library and book sellers  if you would like to participate in your local community.

Here, for your perusal, is the list of 10 most challenged books:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
   Reason: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint,
   and unsuited to age group
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
   Reason: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
   Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age  group
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reason: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reason: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint,
   sexually explicit, and violence
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reason: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually
   explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
   Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age
   group
8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
   Reason: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
   Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
    Reason: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

Today is Reading Rainbow’s final broadcast. After being on the air for 26 years it has reached the last page and the cover is being closed.

NPR reports that the main reason Reading Rainbow is going off air is that nobody will pay the broadcast rights – but the primary cause of that is not so much a financial reason but a change in how reading is currently being taught. The focus of literacy has shifted to being more about the basics of reading: phonics and spelling. This shift is more about combating literacy in general as opposed to promoting reading as a form of education in itself.

It’s an understandable shift since conceptually it’s imperative to be able to read in order to function in society – but what a loss to those kids who will only know reading as a technical function and not a gateway for learning and imagination.

Reading Rainbow was a big part of introducing new and interesting stories to children and it will surely be missed by me and my fellow bibliophiles.