ALA Celebrates Banned Books Week September 22-28, 2019

Theme for 2019 Banned Books Week, September 22-28, 2019

The American Library Association is celebrating 2019 Banned Books Week, Sunday, September 22 through Saturday, September 28.

Banned Books Week is held every year to celebrate the freedom to read. Libraries, schools, and book stores across the United States host events annually. The theme of this year’s event is “Censorship Leaves Us in the Dark. Keep the Light On!”

Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982, according to the American Library Association.

Typically held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the value of free and open access to information. ALA releases a list of the top challenged books every year. See the most challenged books of 2018 released by the ALA in April 2019 by clicking here. 

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. Among the sponsors of Banned Books Week is the American Booksellers for Free Expression (ABFE).

The subject of banning books gained international controversy this summer when Father Dan Rehil, head of St. Edward School, banned the Harry Potter books from the library of the Catholic school in Nashville, citing concern about the influence the story of wizard Harry Potter would have on young readers.

"These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception," Rehill wrote in an email, according to the Nashville Tennessean, "The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text."