Banned Book Week Celebration and Giveaway!

Happy Banned Books Week!

I really love Banned Books Week. It is a way to acknowledge all the wonderful books that people try to ban and it brings to light the dangers of censorship.

When I was looking at all the top banned lists to see which books have been banned and which ones I have read, I realized that the lists were just giving me more books to add to my TBR pile. The fastest way to get me interested in a book is to tell me it's banned. That just makes me want to read it even more . . . probably not the reaction people are going for when they ban books.

Don't you wish there was a banned book section in the library??

I would be all over that!

I have written a couple of posts on this subject:

Some Girls Are Removed From Optional Reading List
Censorship

These are just a few of my favorite banned books.

And it's not one of my favorite of the banned books, but I want to comment on the irony of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury being banned. Seriously . . . a book about a government banning all books being banned. That's insanity!

Looking at this list of some of my favorites, I can see a pattern. Most of them are specifically geared towards young adults. And even the ones who aren't targeted towards that audience may be required school reading. It seems like adults don't think kids can handle the tough subjects. The more stories I read about parents' trying to get books banned from their kid's schools, the more grateful I am for my own parents. My parents never, ever policed my personal reading choices or my required reading for school. They trusted that reading a book about bullying wouldn't cause me to become a bully and reading a book about drug use wouldn't cause me to turn to drugs. When I was in junior high and high school, I was a fan of romance novels and V.C. Andrews. And if you know anything about V.C. Andrews, you know that all of her books contain a certain amount of incest and alcohol abuse. And yet, I didn't turn into an alcoholic and I didn't try to have sex with a family member.

Now on to the giveaway . . . I am giving away the banned book of your choice! (no, you do NOT have to choose a banned book shown above!)

Any book that has been banned at any time can be chosen. That is a lot of options, right? You can certainly choose from my list of favorites. Or maybe you could choose The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini or Looking for Alaska by John Green or Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher or The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky or Twilight by Stephanie Meyer or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. You can go here to see the different lists of banned books for more ideas.

The giveaway is international, as long as The Book Depository ships there free of charge (find that out here!) If you prefer, I will send a Kindle edition via Amazon gift. (Please note: You may only chose ONE of these options!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway runs until October 5, 2015. I will randomly choose a winner on October 6, 2015. If I don't hear from a winner within 72 hours, then I will choose another one.

Good luck!!