Spread the Word: Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is from September 30th through October 6th this year, and once again the organizers are putting out a call for the public to submit videos for a Virtual Read-Out. This year, they've expanded the criteria and you'll now have three options for joining in:

From their site:
1) You can submit a video no more than 3 minutes long of a reading from a banned or challenged book. The video should include information on where and why the book was banned or challenged. You may also add a comment about why you believe the book is important. Please keep your remarks brief.

2) A video of an eyewitness account of local challenges can be submitted. This video should be no longer than three minutes long.

3) Create a promotional video for Banned Books Week like the videos featured. The video should be no longer than five minutes long. The video’s message should focus on celebrating the freedom to read during Banned Books Week.

Follow the links above to find examples of videos, and the celebrity contributions are well worth watching too. And here's the video I posted last year.

If you choose to make a video, I'd love it if you came back and left me a link in the comments!

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week runs from September 24-October 1, 2011 and this year one of the events to help draw attention to censorship is the Virtual Read Out, where readers can present excerpts from their favorite banned books.

On the Banned Books Week YouTube channel, you can see people celebrating the triumph of the power of words over censorship by reading aloud from books that have been challenged or banned. There is also this short video with Judy Blume, which has some great points about why people try to sensor books for children and what affect it actually has:



For my contribution to the Virtual Read Out, I chose Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. This book was challenged for its religious viewpoint, variously described as anti-Christian and anti-authority.

The controversy stepped up when a movie was made from the book, which is ironic because the movie neatly sidestepped a lot of the issues of religion and stuck to the adventurous and otherworldly parts of the book. Which were the parts I liked the best anyhow! Don't get me wrong, I did appreciate the discussions which his version of the origins of sin stimulated, but to me this book is a marvelous adventure tale.

So I chose to record a reading of a glimpse into another world from The Golden Compass:



Only a few flubs, not bad! What about you--any special plans for Banned Book Week? Did you post a video for the Virtual Read-out?