Celebrating Freedom to Read Week

Celebrate your freedom to read! Every February, Canadian libraries come together to raise awareness about the importance of intellectual freedom. Intellectual freedom gives us the right to decide what we read, watch, and listen to (within the limits of the law). It means we have the right not to read something, but not the right to prevent others from reading it.

This fundamental freedom of expression is guaranteed to all Canadians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As part of its Mission and Values, Regina Public Library is proud to support the principles of intellectual freedom as defined in the Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries:

“Libraries have a core responsibility to safeguard and facilitate access to constitutionally protected expressions of knowledge, imagination, ideas, and opinion, including those which some individuals and groups consider unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable.”

Here are ten books that have been frequently challenged in the past. We also have a Freedom to Read Week booklist on Overdrive.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

George by Alex Gino

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

For more information, or to get involved, please visit the Freedom To Read Week website. See also the American Library Association’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books List, updated annually, and the Canadian Federation of Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Challenges Survey.
 

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