Saving a Place this Banned Books Week

School Library Journal reached out to me and a few others in early August asking if we'd each like to make a video in support of Banned Books Week (Sept. 23-29). I made a video focusing on three LGBTQ-centered picture books and reminding readers and reader-adjacent big people to "save a place" for challenging books to exist in your world. These might be books with unfamiliar characters or situations or displaying different ideologies or values than those under which you were raised, but that doesn't exclude them from the importance of giving all readers access to these stories.

Click HERE to visit the SLJ article (and check out the video from fellow Library Journal Mover & Shaker K.C. Boyd).

I've also collected a couple of really outstanding resources to support Banned Books Week celebrations no matter if you work in a library or school, or if you want to celebrate on your own.

• Banned and Challenged Classics

• Resources to support Banned Books Week programming, promotion of the annual celebration of the right to read, and banned books themselves

• 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books by Decade

Banned Books Week is for readers of all ages and it's an easy way to show that you stand up against censorship. I'll hope you'll join us in celebrating!