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George M. Johnson is the writer of All Boys Aren’t Blue, one of the vital challenged and banned books of 2021. The American Library Affiliation has named them because the honorary chair of the upcoming Banned Books Week, which runs from September 18th to twenty fourth.
Johnson mentioned concerning the place, “Being the honorary chair for Banned Books Week is necessary to me as a result of I do know what it’s prefer to develop up and never have tales about my very own lived expertise, nor the reality outdoors of an ahistorical context. This can be a battle for the reality that has at all times existed even when it not often will get instructed. When the youth are empowered with tales concerning the experiences of others, they grow to be adults who perceive the need for fairness and equality and have the instruments to construct a world the likes of which we’ve by no means seen.”
Banned Books Week started in 1982, and it’s acknowledged by many public libraries and college libraries, in addition to some bookstores and different literary teams. The Banned Books Week Coalition contains many alternative anti-censorship and literary teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide USA, Nationwide Coalition In opposition to Censorship, Nationwide Council of Academics of English, and PEN America, and it receives funding from Penguin Random Home.
Whereas this occasion has been popularly “celebrated” for many years, the American Library Affiliation and Banned Books Week specifically has additionally drawn criticism for failing to adequately tackle the present threats towards mental freedom by specializing in particular person titles as an alternative of the underlying causes of the latest dramatic improve in censorship and e book challenges.
Learn extra about this story at ALA’s Banned Books Week weblog.
Discover extra information and tales of curiosity from the e book world in Breaking in Books.