It’s Banned Book Week, a great time to celebrate our freedom to read — in Wasilla or anywhere else in this great country! The ALA provides this list of the most challenged books and the reasons they caused a stir (see below for the 2007 list).

Tomorrow, Thursday, beginning at 4:00, Title Wave Books in Anchorage will be hosting a special READ OUT LOUD event. The event is intended to raise awareness of ongoing censorship and to encourage free and open discourse. Students, teachers, local authors, members of the press, and other notables have been invited to read selections from previously banned or challenged books. Yours truly will be reading from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. So stop by, support the freedom to read, and then celebrate your freedom to THINK by rushing back home to watch the VP Debate.

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

TTYL by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit

It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group