Celebrate Banned Books Week 2016 by exercising your freedom to read. For more than 30 years the American Library Association's Office Intellectual Freedom has been celebrating and protecting our freedom to read with Banned Books Week. With the library's strong support of intellectual freedom we provide collections that cover a diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. You can find most of the frequently challenged/banned books in our collection.
Many of the top books on the annual lists of banned or challenged books are children's or young adult books, but the content and topics span the subject disciplines and include both current books and classics. Topping the 2015 list is Looking for Alaska, 
by John Green. This book's summary in Mirlyn says, "Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. " The reasons cited for banning the book include offensive language, sexually explicit content, and content unsuited for the designated age group.
The rest of the top 10 banned books for 2015 include Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James, I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, 
by Susan Kuklin, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, The Holy Bible, Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel, Habibi, 
by Craig Thompson, Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter, and Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan.
Among that classics that have appeared on the banned book lists repeatedly over the years are the Harry Potter books, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.
The American Library Association has lists of the top 100 banned books for 2000-2009 and 1990-1999, so you can check on other titles and then search Mirlyn to find the ones you'd like to read in our collection. Enjoy your freedom to read!