3 Quick Banned Books Week Ideas

It's Banned Books Week on September 24th-30th. While many of us celebrate this as one of the library world's most important holidays, it's also true that it's not for everyone. If you're just not a fan of huge flashing-lights displays and caution tape banners but would like to celebrate anyway, this article is for you! Kat has compiled some quick Banned Books Week ideas to help you quickly and easily celebrate.

Mad Libs

Remember how much fun Mad Libs were when you were a kid? You fill in the blank spaces of a pre-written story with a word with their correct part of speech, thereby taking an ordinary paragraph and making it very silly. We thought, what better way to have fun with Banned Books Week than by redacting parts of classic banned books and making our own Mad Libs? Please feel free to download (just right click the pictures below and save!) and print these samples for your patrons! We'd love to see any that you make yourself, too; I used Canva to create them, so the hardest part was choosing which passages to use.

Covered Books

I always love the Blind Date with a Book displays that are done for Valentine's Day. Why not cover books and write on them why they can't be read? It might be surprising to some people to unwrap a book that is labeled as "CAUTION: Contains inappropriate language!" and find Harriet the Spy. (Harriet, incidentally, was also challenged because she liked to wear boy clothes, and therefore might be a homosexual.) You can even, as in our sample here, simply mention that "this book is dangerous!"

Mini Protest Signs 

Teen Librarian Hallie Fields recently posted about these great mini-protest signs on her blog, Book Loaner. (She also had the covered books idea! Great minds think alike!) These are so easy, it would be a great way to get your Teen Advisory Board involved. All you need is cardstock or index cards, craft sticks, and markers. What a brilliant idea! Thanks, Hallie, for giving us permission to share your idea.

We would love to see how you're celebrating Banned Books Week. Please let us know here in the comments, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter.