Freedom to Read Week

February 20-26 is Freedom to Read Week, "an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms". (freedomtoread.ca)

I talked a bit about Freedom to Read during Banned Books Week in September here, but if you're keen to know more, pop over to freedomtoread.ca.

What can you do to raise awareness about censorship in Canada? Free a challenged book!

You probably have a challenged book sitting on your shelf right now! (for a list of challenged book, check here). Here are a few examples:

• J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
• Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
• Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
• J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter
• Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
• and on and on and on..

Take one of your books (or buy a book), put in a free label, and register it at bookcrossing.com. Leave it somewhere for someone to find, maybe in your school or on a bus or in a mall or anywhere lots of people hang out (even a library). Log onto bookcrossing.com and see where your book has traveled and what people have thought of it.

Cool, right?