![[2005 BBW logo; It's Your Freedom We're Talking About; Link to the ALA's Banned Books Week page; http://www.ala.org/bbooks/]](/images/_bannedbooks.gif "[2005 BBW logo; It's Your Freedom We're Talking About; Link to the ALA's Banned Books Week page; http://www.ala.org/bbooks/]")
The American Library Association (ALA) is sponsoring their 14th annual Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, September 24-October 1, to remind Americans not to take intellectual freedom for granted. In observance of Banned Books Week, the ALA publishes a list of the most challenged books and authors of the previous year. A challenge is a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.
Three of the “Ten Most Challenged Books of 2004” (out of a total of 547 challenges) were cited for “homosexual” themes, the highest number in a decade. One is the fairy-tale-like children’s story King & King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland, about a prince who falls in love with another prince. Other children’s books dealing with issues of lesbian and gay parenting that have appeared over the years on the Most Frequently Challenged Books list include Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate.
Some of the challenges have nothing to do with issues as divisive as “homosexuality”: J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, is number four on the list of “Top Ten Challenged Authors 1990 to 2004.”
Visit the Banned Books Week site to learn more about the who, what, where, why, and how of challenged and banned books. And support your local library!