Thursday, October 02, 2008

A Virginia Library Observes Banned Book Week

This library window in Glen Allen, Virginia, has been quite the conversation starter-- which is exactly what the library staff hoped for.

The window features people sitting and reading books that have been banned or challenged. In this instance, a man and his daughter are reading Where's Waldo?, #88 on the American Library Association's Top 100 Banned and Challenged books.

People have been observed stopping to look in the window, with children asking, "What are they doing?" That one question leads to a discussion of banned and challenged books.

I've been reading news articles and blog posts centering around Banned Books Week in the past few days-- including ones that were diametrically opposed to my own viewpoint. (My most common reaction to the latter was "I suppose they deny the Holocaust ever happened, too.")

But that's one of the joyous freedoms of this country: ALL viewpoints have the right to be aired. It is a freedom that should never be allowed to be lost.


2 comments:

  1. That library window is a fantastic idea. I hope it spreads!

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  2. What a wonderful picture! I love the "see live humans read" - perhaps also a comment on the danger of books losing to technology.

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