By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
If you don't like it, don't read it is not always how it goes. For almost as long as there have been books, there have been banned books. Sept. 18-24 is Banned Books Week, and the Great Bend Public Library is kicking off the week with a Banned Books Bash for teens in grades 6-12 Monday at 4 p.m.
"We’re celebrating banned and challenged books," said Haylee Huddleston, teen services librarian at GBPL. "They’re any title that has been questioned by anyone, usually parents of students in schools, who have them either in their curriculum or at the library. They just have some objection to the content or the nature of the book. The point of the Banned Books Bash, and Banned Books Week in general, is just to celebrate the freedom to read what you choose."
Some bans and challenges are expected, but many books on the list come as a surprise. "Harriet the Spy," has been banned because, well, it's 11-year-old protagonist is a spy and could be a bad influence on those who read the book. "The Diary of Anne Frank," has been challenged for several reasons relating to the Holocaust, but one reader challenged the book because it, "was a downer." "Charlotte's Web," was once banned in Kansas because a pair of parents thought talking animals must be "the work of the devil."
Monday's bash at the library will give young readers a hands-on experience with some of the books that have been challenged and banned over the years.
"We’ll have little things around where they can try to guess what the banned book is based on why it was banned," Huddleston said. "Then they can read a little bit of it and about it. It’s also a tasting because we’ll have snacks for them as well. So we’ll get to sample the books and some snacks, and we’ll have some activities, too."