The Best Banned Books Pinterest PinBoards

Top Banned Books Boards on Pinterest

To conclude the celebration for Banned Books Week, I'd like to share my top 5 (or more...) favorite Banned Books Pinterest pinboards. These boards contain a variety of memes, inspirational quotes, activities, videos, and books that have all been challenged or banned.

1. Already mentioned on my list of Top 5 Book Boards but worth another shout-out is Banned Books by Random House (Collaborative board)

2. Banned Books Week by Somers Library

3. Banned Books Week Pinterest User

4. Banned, Challenged, Censored, & Censured by Missoula Public Library

5. Banned Books Week by RH Library (Collaborative board)

6. (Yes, I went over 5!)  Librarian Files: Banned Books Week by Regina Townsend - Great display examples for Banned Books Week!

What I love about these banned books boards is that they not only offer an excellent reading list for college-bound students, but they feature some of the best literary quotes from our favorite authors. You can find several book-related pinboards on my Pinterest page: Mrs. Orman's Pinterest Pinboards

Pinterest is full of amazing book pinners and boards that can give your students great reading suggestions when they are looking for a new book. There are so many libraries that are now pinning new books and library activity suggestions. One of my favorite boards to follow for librarians is the Teen Programming in Libraries (a collaborative board) by Heather Booth. Librarians are definitely an English teacher's best friend. (Plus, I was a K-12 librarian at a private school before I started teaching English and journalism, so I'm a little biased!)

To wrap up this post, I'd like to let you all know about a great giveaway Creation Castle is having for Banned Books Week: teaching resources based on literature at every grade level. Make sure to enter to win today! It ends at midnight tonight. P.S. High school teachers: You have an excellent chance to win since there are only 78 entries as of 9 a.m. this morning. I donated my To Kill a Mockingbird Teaching Unit and for the middle school giveaway, my Hunger Games Student Survival Pack & Teacher's Guide. Don't miss out on winning those & other great literature resources! {ENTER HERE}

The Best Pin Boards on Pinterest for Young Adult Books

To continue the celebration for the ALA's Banned Books Week, here are my favorite Pinterest pin boards to follow to keep up with the best and newest titles in Young Adult (YA) literature. Share the boards with your students when they are looking for a new book to read.

Top 5 YA Lit Book Boards on Pinterest

My Top 5 Picks for Young Adult Literature Book Boards:

1. New in Young Adult Fiction by GoodReads: At the start of every month, we'll post the most popular new releases in young adult fiction, the books that Goodreads members are adding to their to-read shelves!

2. Oakland Public Library TeenZone: "Books, movies, videogames, events & more! Our 6 TeenZones are your spot to have fun, meet up, explore and participate! Come visit us. http://www.oaklandlibrary.org." I can't choose just one of their pin boards. Seriously. You'll want to follow all of them.

3. Scholastic has several boards that feature YA book choices, so I'm lumping them together:

  - Dystopian Picks: Who doesn't love a good dystopia? And in YA lit, there's plenty of great new ones.

  - Summer Reading Picks: Even though this board contains many children's books, there are several good YA books, as well.

  - Baseball Picks: I love baseball and baseball-themed books. My only complaint is I wish there were   more books on the board!

One board I'd LOVE to see from Scholastic is a "BookBeat" board with links to all their titles from their BookBeat catalog. So how 'bout it, Scholastic? ;)

4. YA Favorites by Random House Kids: features some new titles you may not see elsewhere.

5. Young Adult Literature by Little Rock AFB Library: Offers a great selection of books for a variety of readers.

Worth Mentioning:
Greece Public Library's Teen Books is another awesome pin board for YA fiction. Actually, they have a great assortment of so many boards, they are worth a "Follow All"!

And the icing on the cake for those looking for YA authors to follow is YA Highway's post with a plethora of links to authors on Pinterest: YA Authors on Pinterest

If you are a teen librarian, an excellent collaborative board to follow is the Teen Programming in Libraries (a collaborative board)

Collaborate With Me!?
I've looked for collaborative boards that focus solely on YA title picks. I haven't come across too many,  and mine (Young Adult (YA) Literature) is a little sad and needs more pins. I tend to pin more on my Books for Boys and Books for Girls boards, so I'd love to make it a collaborative board. With 2,000+ followers, it might be a good opportunity to get some exposure, too. If you are interested, leave your Pinterest address below and I will add you.

Also, leave a link to any other boards I've forgotten (I know there are many more!).

The Best Book Boards to Follow on Pinterest - Celebrating Banned Books Week

Find great book boards to follow on Pinterest!

Today kicks off the ALA's annual Banned Books Week, which celebrates our freedom to read.

To begin the celebration on my blog, I thought I would post my favorite book boards on Pinterest. You'll find contributors from all over the world sharing the books they love, ultra-cool libraries, and anything related to books. There's very few advertisements or self-promotion; these are just great book boards to celebrate reading. And with the weather turning cooler, some of the book nooks are just downright cozy-looking!

Check out my picks for the top 5 book boards to follow on Pinterest:

1. Book Community Board - a place to discover and appreciate books. Started by Jellybooks with over 1,600 contributors and 16,000 pins.

2. Junk Bookshop (books and more...) - ...pictures of the library... - inspiring books (bookshelf, joke, etc....). Started by  Flynn "Knihovna" Carsen with 50+ contributors and over 13,000 pins.

3. Book Club -  Contributors pin their favorite adult and young adult books. Started by Kari O., with 380+ pinners and 2,270+ pins, you are sure to find some good reads here.

4. The Librarian's List: All-Time Favorite Books - A list of our most beloved books created by librarians for librarians and the world! Started by O'Fallon Public Library with almost 400 contributors and 375+ pins.

5. Banned Books - "As they say, censorship causes blindness. We think it's important to honor Banned Books Week (9/30 - 10/6) all year round." Started by Random House Books with 11 contributors and over 100 pins.

Other notable boards or Pinterest users relating to books include:
Bookish News & Fun - A fun group board for book bloggers (reviews not posted here, though).
Literary Art 
All Things Books - This is my personal board of favorite images relating to books. I especially like the cozy reading nooks and amazing libraries from around the world.
Bernardsville Public Library
Friday Reads - If you look to Twitter on Fridays to see what people around the world are reading (#fridayreads), you can check out their Pinterest boards now, as well.
Scholastic - More about their boards in my next post...

Next up: The best book boards for young adult literature.

Twilight? The Hunger Games? Top 10 Challenged Books of 2010

This week is Banned Books Week, sponsored by The American Library Association. I wrote a post on my other blog about it, but thought I would add this link to The Huffington Post's InfoGraph with the Top 10 Challenged Books of 2010, and the reasons why. It is amazing to see many of my students' favorites on the list. But some of the reasons for why they were challenged are baffling. I think it just goes to prove that many of the people who challenge these books read only small parts rather than basing their objection on the book as a whole.

The interactive InfoGraph can be found here on "Huff Post Books" page.

APPLYING THIS IN THE CLASSROOM
To educate our youth on censorship and freedom of speech, I ask them to journal their thoughts on censorship. I show them the lists of censored/challenged books (and another visual aide, found here, which shows some surprising banned books). Then I start asking them some specific questions, such as:

1. Do you believe in freedom of speech? Explain.

2. Do you believe in censorship, or removing materials from the library or classroom if someone opposes them? Why/why not?

3. Are there any books that should not be allowed in schools? Explain.

4. Are there any books that should not be allowed in libraries? Explain.

5. Are there any books that should never be printed? Explain.

After they write, I ask them some discussion questions to reflect on their answers, such as:

-If you answered "no" to number 1, but "yes" to numbers 4 or 5, then you need to change your answer to number 1 to "yes."

I bring up one of my favorite quotes by Noam Chomsky:

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." 

This always makes them stop and think. If they wish to have freedom of speech for themselves and their beliefs, it is only fair to allow it for all. It ceases to be freedom of speech when we limit others' rights.

Do you have a discussion with your students about censorship and/or banned books?

Don't forget to download my FREE banned books bookmarks, found on my Teachers Pay Teachers website:

FREE Bookmarks - "I Read Banned Books"

FREE Bookmarks - "President Snow's Panem"