The ALA has provided an interesting map of the books banned and removed from public facilities.
A resource from last year, but a still good one, is the National Coalition Against Censorship Voices Against Book Censorship Project — where may authors lent their voices to speaking out against book censorship. There are excellent entries here, but my favorites:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHMPtYvZ8tM[/youtube]
and this is very powerful:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juRla77tFOY[/youtube]
It never ceases to amaze me how much effort that people will spend in controlling what you know or the ideas that you encounter. And I can’t begin to imagine the life of someone who has so utterly cut him or herself off from the acquisition of new ideas or knowledge. But they are out there and they are trying to control what you and your kids read. Those of us committed to knowledge and a life of ideas have not many choices other than to fight back and to make sure that the only people for whom information can be controlled are just the ones in their own homes.
These are the Top 100 Banned and/or Challenged Classics. What are your Top 5 favorite banned books?