The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Stephentown Memorial Library Celebrates Banned Books Week

By

Name your favorite book. Is it one of the Harry Potter series? A classic like The Call of the Wild or Native Son? Chances are that someone doesn’t share your fondness for this book and has tried to prohibit other people from reading it. During Banned Books Week, September 26 to October 3, the Stephentown Memorial Library will highlight the issue of book banning through programs and displays that celebrate the freedom to make our own reading choices.
Banned Books Week is about the importance of making all viewpoints, including those which may be unorthodox or unpopular, available to all who wish to read them. Keeping books such as To Kill A Mockingbird, George Orwell’s 1984 or the more recent Beloved by Toni Morrison available to readers is a cornerstone of intellectual freedom.
Over the past eight years, American libraries were faced with 3,736 challenges to books in their collections. Included on the top ten most challenged books of 2008, a list compiled by the American Library Association, are such sought after children’s books as Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and its series counterparts by Alvin Schwartz and the acclaimed adult book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
Friday Night Screening Of Fahrenheit 451
In an effort to highlight this important issue, the Stephentown Memorial Library will show the film “Fahrenheit 451,” a 1966 François Truffaut film based on the classic science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury.  The film depicts a society in which books have been banned and stars Oskar Werner as a fireman of the future who burns books until he meets a book lover and becomes an outlaw who supports reading and individual thought. The film will be screened at 7 pm on Friday, October 2, at the Library.  A discussion will follow the film, and refreshments will be served.  This film is not rated.
For more information on Banned Books Week or Library programs, contact Laurenne Teachout, Director, Stephentown Memorial Library, 518-733-5750, step1@uhls.lib.ny.us.