Thursday, February 18, 2010

Freedom to Read Week - Feb 21-27/2010

Freedom to Read Week 2010 
Freedom to Read Week is a Canadian Event held every year in February. Here's what the official website says:
Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Basically it's a time to read banned or challenged books. To show everyone that you want to choose what books you want to read. That you don't want other people to determine what is available or not available to read.

I can see warnings on books or even certain books needing permission from the parents to check out but not taking them out of the library completely. Then again there are certain subjects that a child probably is ready to read about but their parent would never talk to them about it or say yes they could take out a book on that subject and so without being free to check out whatever books they want, they might not get the information they need/want. e.g. A child questioning their sexuality wants to read about homosexuality but if the book isn't in the library and he/she doesn't feel comfortable asking about it, he/she might not get the information the child was looking for.