Helen: Banned Book Week at work

Banned Book Week at a high school

Banned Book Week is over and it went pretty well at work for me (I am a high school teacher librarian). In the past I've done displays, a daily bulletin announcement with BBW facts, and at lunch teachers have read from banned books. Unfortunately, students don't tend to join us for the readings so this year I dropped that part of the week. Less stress for me and the teachers who volunteered in the past.

However, the display part is always fun. I have poster boards with lists of banned books as well as charts showing why books are banned, who bans them, and how many get banned each year. This year I stole an idea from a fellow teacher librarian and put the banned books in brown paper bags, which ended up being very beneficial and led to many fun discussions.

Students were definitely attracted to the bags that were on shelves throughout the library. They peeked inside to see which book had been banned and it got them asking questions and talking about banning much more than in the past. It was especially effective since I made sure to include favorites such as Twilight and Harry Potter as well as books they read in their English classes such as Of Mice and Men and To Kill A Mockingbird. I read that another teacher librarian uses caution tape on her display and I love the idea so next year I am going to add caution tape on the Library front doors.