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Yesterday marked the beginning of Freedom to Read Week. Today the Pelham Public Library welcomes author Pearce Carefoote who will speak on censorship issues. Carefoote is the author of Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter.

Don't forget to check out the "Banned Book Challenge."

Freedom to Read Week is February 24 to March 1, 2008. The Pelham Public Library in Fonthill, Ontario, Canada welcomes Pearce Carefoote, archivist at the University of Toronto Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and author of Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter. Carefoote appears at the Fonthill Branch, 43 Pelham Town Square, Fonthill on Monday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Due to the overwhelming response of readers around the world, the Banned Book Challenge will be issued once again. Watch for the sign-up form soon. Readers are encouraged to set a goal for themselves for the number of challenged or banned books they would like to read between February 24 and June 30. Let us know on the soon-to-be-posted form, then let us know how you did. If you are not sure what to choose from, visit our LibraryThing by clicking on the logo or check out any number of sites listed on the sidebar.

Pearce J. Carefoote, author of Forbidden Fruit, talks about the underlying presumption of censorship.

The underlying presumption of censorship is that members of a society will be harmed if they are allowed to make informed choices for themselves about what they read or see. In essence, it is based on the very elitist premise that the uneducated masses need protection from ideas....If this paternalistic theory was ever valid, it is much more difficult to support in an era when the vast majority of the population in the West holds at least a high school diploma and is more technologically competent than any other generation in history. While weak, powerless, and voiceless populations -- children, for example -- will always need society's special protection to prevent their harm or exploitation, argumentation is always preferable to outright censorship; rather than advancing society, such censorship runs the risk of making it retrograde.

Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter, is a wonderful new resource that gives readers the background and history on the banning of specific titles. Author Pearce J. Carefoote is a staff archivist at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. In 2002, Carefoote won the OLA (Ontario Library Association) Anniversary Prize, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Award, and the Toronto Area Archivists Group Award.

Research for an exhibition of banned and challenged books in 2005 culminated in this book.

Its Canadian focus makes it a valuable resource for all schools and libraries.

I mean, there's a 20% chance a kid might try to read it before consuming, right?

Right?

Thanks to BB-Blog for the link.