What do Toni Morrison, Jodi Picoult, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Harper Lee, Madeleine L’engle, Shirley Jackson, John Steinbeck, JK Rowling, Sherman Alexie, Khaled Hosseini, Margaret Atwood, Mark Twain, J.D.Salinger, George Orwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Golding, and Kesey have in common?
If you guessed they were the authors of books on your teenage children’s summer reading lists, you might be right. But if you guessed they were the authors of the most banned books in the country, you would definitely be correct.
Yup, books such as The Bluest Eye and Huckleberry Finn, The Kite Runner and 1984, Catcher in the Rye, and To Kill a Mockingbird have routinely found their resting place in the trash heap after being deemed dangerous to the moral fiber of our children.
Book banning and censorship are real threats to truth and knowledge right here in the United States.
Join us on Wednesday, March 26 fom 7–8:30 pm at The Cabot in Beverly when a panel of experts will discuss the definitions of book banning and censorship; their history in the US; why these infringements matter; recent threats and trends in schools and public libraries; and what we, the public, can do about it.
Barb Fecteau will be our moderator. Barb is a Beverly High School librarian, president of the Mass School LIbrary Association, and a former Jeopardy contestant and winner! She will be joined by Laura Saunders, associate dean and professor at Simmons University School of LIbrary and Information Science; Jennifer Varney, librarian at Martin Luther King Jr. School in Cambridge; and Reba Tierney Waltham High School librarian recognized by the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth “for her unwavering commitment to advancing LGBTQ+ equality and diversity within her school and community,” A Q&A will follow the panel discussion.
Recognition of the winners of the fourth annual Leading Ladies Art as Activism contest for high school students will precede the discussion. This year, contestants were asked to create posters that raised awareness about, as well as encouraged action to combat, book banning and censorship.