Teen Readers’ Favorite Book is New Moon

More than 6,000 teen readers across the country chose New Moon by Stephenie Meyer as their favorite book in the annual American Library Association Teens’ Top Ten vote. New moon is the second book in an incredibly popular series about teenage vampires.

The 2007 Teens' Top Ten is:

1. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
2. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
3. How to Ruin a Summer Vacation by Simone Elkeles (not owned by DPL)
4. Maximum Ride: School's Out - Forever by James Patterson
5. Firegirl by Tony Abbott.
6. All Hallows Eve (13 Stories) by Vivian Vande Velde
7. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
8. River Secrets by Shannon Hale
9. Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe (not owned by DPL)
10. Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks

The Chicken or the Egg?

Libraries have embraced blogs as wonderful ways to communicate regularly with our patrons. That was certainly our purpose in starting one here in Dover. We have a printed newsletter, but we can only afford to print 500 copies a month. Blogs can reach thousands! Plus, we always have a lot more to say than can fit in the 4 pages of our newsletter...about our profession, the books and movies we read and view, our patrons and their stories, funny incidents, etc. ...and a blog just fits our workstyle perfectly. We try to write what we might say in conversation with a patron at the front desk.

Well now, our blog has been included in a new book by library/media/tech guru Walt Crawford called "Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples". He calls our blog a "robust ,varied blog offering a variety of voices on a variety of topics." I think it made his list because we post often, we're sometimes lengthy (mea culpa, that's usually me), we attempt humor, we include illustrations and photographs, and we get some public comments. For whatever reason, we're happy to be included.

However, Walt's book may generate interest by people like me in Libraryland who read his "Cites and Insights" publication, but how do we get regular folk, general ordinary book lovers, to tune in regularly? Does the blog ever really translate into more use of the library or, at the very least, engender good feelings about the library? We thought our blog would be a great (and free) publicity tool but how do we generate enough publicity for the blog itself so that "write it, they will come" actually comes to fruition? But thanks for listing us Mr. Crawford, we'll take all the hits we can get!!

Library Hours for the Thanksgiving Weekend

Library hours for the Thanksgiving Holiday will be:
Wednesday, Nov. 21 - 9am to 5:30pm
Thursday and Friday, Nov. 22 & 23 - Closed
Saturday, November 24 - 9am to 5:00pm
Sun., Nov. 25 - Closed

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Listen All the Way to Grandma's House

Are you going to be one of those unfortunate travelers braving the airports over the Thanksgiving holiday? If you are, why not load up your MP3 player with a few audio books to occupy your time? Many new titles have been added this month.

Among the new downloadable audio book titles are:

Title	Author
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress	Sijie, Dai
Blue Christmas	Andrews, Mary Kay
Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy	Nimmo, Jenny
Creation in Death	Robb, J.D.
Fatherland	Harris, Robert
King Dork	Portman, Frank
A Lick of Frost	Hamilton, Laurell K.
Look Me in the Eye	Robison, John Elder
The Secret Life of Josephine	Erickson, Carolly
Sixteen in Nome	Brand, Max
Stone Cold	Baldacci, David
Third Degree	Iles, Greg
American Creation	Ellis, Joseph J.
Charlie Bone & the Castle of Mirrors	Nimmo, Jenny
Darkness Falls	Mills, Kyle
Double Cross	Patterson, James
The Heir	Bradford, Barbara Taylor
Last Night at the Lobster	O'Nan, Stewart
The Race	Patterson, Richard North

Saying Thank You is a Piece of Cake

Our wonderful patrons know how to keep the librarians’ spirits up. Thank you Joanne and Michael!

Unattended Children at the Library

Late one afternoon last week, a mother dropped off her 10-year old child at the Library while she went to an exercise class downtown. Library policy states that no child under 8 may be left unattended, so the mom was well within our rules in leaving her son in the Children's Room unaccompanied. Unfortunately, she did not realize the Library closes at 5:30pm on Thursdays. We were left with a conundrum: no way to reach the mother (her cell phone was off), and a Library that was closing. Luckily the child was able to reach his older sister for a ride home, but the staff stayed on the premises with the child until she arrived. It's not the first time something like this has happened. I came across a sign in another blog which could offer a possible solution.

And the winners are...

The 58th annual National Book Awards were handed out in New York City this week. Winners included:

FICTION: Denis Johnson for "Tree of Smoke" a novel about two American families swept up in the Vietnam War.

NON-FICTION: "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA" by Tim Weiner who examined over 50,000 official documents pertaining to the 60-year existence of this U.S. spy agency.

YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE: "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian", a coming-of-age story by Sherman Alexie which follows an adolescent boy trying to break away from the life he seems destined to live.

ENJOY THEM ALL!

Colorful Creations

Come in and see the exquisite bracelets, necklaces, and earrings crafted by Annemarie in the display cases in the Reference Room and the magazine area. The Library is always looking for local craftspeople and artists who would like to display their work at the Library throughout the year. If you are interested please contact Sandra Erdmann.

Something for the Grammar Freaks

Find out if you know when to use "it's" or "its and "there," "their," or "they're" with this fun little quiz. If you grew up in a household like mine, with a mother who would correct us by saying things like “that is THEY, not, that’s them.” you will find it a piece of cake. I only missed one, don’t tell my Mom, or the Library Director either because she knows her grammar like nobody’s business. Hmmm, was that correct grammar?

Anyway if you have fun with the quiz, and pondering the subtleties of the English language, you may want to check out:

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss
Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies by June Casagrande
When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It by Ben Yagoda
Spunk and Bite by Arthur Plotnik
Right, Wrong, and Risky by Mark Davidson
Much Ado About English by Todd Watson

Check Out Those Charities!

My Dad recently called me to get more information on a story he had just seen on Good Morning America. It seems that several Veterans charities had been given failing grades for using under 35% of money collected “on actual bona fide charitable programs”. I was able to find the text of the article on GMA’s website for him as well as passing on websites of charity watchdog groups.

Before you give money this year, make sure to check up on the groups you are interested in at
http://www.give.org/
http://www.charitynavigator.org/
http://www.charitywatch.org/azlist.html

Booksale Leftovers are now FREE!

We are at the tail end of our booksale, and all the leftovers are now FREE. Come in and haul them away--you can't beat the price!

Is It Too Soon for Christmas?

I don’t want to think about it yet but there are some happy Christmas elves here at the Library that would start playing Christmas music after Labor Day if we let them, and of course crafters need to start their projects before December. These folks will be pleased to know that hundreds of Christmas books and CDs now await them in the Browse Room, at the end of the Non-fiction books.

Medical Memoirs

There are thousands and thousands of families and individuals dealing with devastating physical or mental conditions which are chronic, life-changing, or long-term disorders. Most are kept private and only the bravest among us decide to publish their stories. It’s remarkable to me that some people have the strength and mental foresight not only to keep a record of their health struggles but then have the tenacity to write fascinating personal memoirs about how they coped and survived. Here are some of the recent best:

"Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy" by Geralyn Lucas (362.1969) is a charming, hilarious, yet very frank account of a 27-year-old’s battle with breast cancer. Even while losing her vibrancy and her looks, Geralyn’s journey will inspire anyone struggling with self-image or illness.

"Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips" by Kris Carr (616.994) is the written companion to Carr’s wonderful TLC TV documentary “Crazy Sexy Cancer”, composed after her diagnosis with rare liver tumors. She covers dating, sex, appearance, recipes, medical and holistic resources including young survivor support groups in this ultimately joyous memoir..

"Sick Girl" by Amy Silverstein (818.5) is fierce and provocative as it details the painful experiences of a young heart transplant recipient who now, at age 42, is a 17-year survivor. Silverstein chronicles her harrowing medical journey and readers can live her nightmare from the inside—an unforgettable and compelling experience.

"Never Give Up" by Tedy Bruschi (796.332) tells the inspiring story of the 31-year-old New England Patriot linebacker’s debilitating stroke, the surgery to repair a hole in his heart, his recovery, and eventual return, eight and a half months later, to the ranks of professional football. Go Pats #54!

"Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s" by John Elder Robison (362.196) tells the painful growing-up memoirs of a man who was not diagnosed with this highly-functioning type of autism until he was 40. Robison is Augusten Burroughs’s (“Running with Scissors”) brother so you may be already familiar with their dysfunctional family.

"My Lobotomy" by Howard Dully (617.481) heart-wrenchingly describes his 1960 brain surgery in which icepick-type instruments were inserted through his eye sockets to sever his frontal lobe and cure his supposed mental illness. Dully shows great courage in telling his story, especially about what drove his parents to such an unconscionable act.

"Born on a Blue Day" by Daniel Tammet (362.196) is an engaging and intriguing first-person account into the mind of a high-functioning, 27-year-old autistic savant. Tammet learned Icelandic in a single week and recited pi up to the 22,514th digit. He also experiences synesthesia, which enables him to experience numbers and words as shapes, colors, textures and motions.

"The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness" by Elyn R. Saks (616.898) is the gripping memoir of a life spent grappling with hallucinations, medications, and psychoses, and one woman’s path toward coming to terms with her schizophrenia. Saks overcame much to now lead a full life as a law professor.

We’re happy to add that all of these authors are doing well! Good health to all!

The View from the Library

We are fortunate be situated in a lovely old Carnegie Library building. The icing on the cake is the often dramatic view we have of Dover’s City Hall, a much younger but still impressive building. I have seen City Hall obscured by large drifting snowflakes, threatened by lightning, and caressed by rainbows. Yesterday it was glowing with sunlight, against a backdrop of storm clouds.

The Guynd: a Scottish Journal by Belinda Rathbone

Do you dream of restoring a crumbling villa in Tuscany, a farmhouse in France, or a stately home in Great Britain? After Peter Mayle’s best-selling books on his life in Provence, many people had that dream, and some actually went out and lived it. Belinda Rathbone stumbled into her new life as the mistress of 400 acre estate in Scotland, complete with a decrepit Georgian mansion when she married John, Laird of Guynd. The house is in need of rescue, as is John. He is overwhelmed by the weight of hundreds of years of family history, and years of family stuff that has accumulated and no one dares discard. Belinda battles her husband’s compulsive need to save dusty piles of old curtains, pieces of linoleum, and shabby, stained clothes. ‘If the Scots are frugal then there is none more frugal than John. It’s not so much that he is averse to buying things, but that he will never throw anything away. “Trash,” “rubbish,” and “garbage” are simply not words in his vocabulary, except when he accused me of “creating trash”.’ You will feel as though you are witnessing the house come alive through Belinda’s efforts as she scrubs, repaints, redecorates, and renovates the Guynd. There are plenty of local characters to add flavor to her story, particularly among their troublesome tenants. This Scottish journal becomes the story of a marriage, as well as the story of a house. ““I knew when I married the man that I married the mansion.” My only complaint is that the book ends abruptly; I still want to know, “what happens next?”

Books to Movies

This fall there are a plethora of movies coming out that are based on books. Seems great but I am always suprised at how little publicity that the author of the original book gets when the movie comes out; most times it is not even mentioned that the film was based on a book. Scandalous! For me, that seems like a pretty important piece of information, but then again I am just a nerdy librarian. Do you think that if the general public knew that the movie was based on a book they might want to read the book afterwards? Probably not, but it is a hopeful thought. Anyway, here are some of the movies that are coming out:

• "Love in the Time of Cholera" based on the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel stars Benjamin Bratt and Javier Bardem.


• "Mist" is based on a story by Stephen King that appeared in "Dark Forces" and "Skeleton Crew".


• "Atonement" is based on the Ian McEwan novel, and the movie stars Keira Knightley and Vanessa Redgrave.


• "The Other Boleyn Girl" (great book, by the way) was written by Philippa Gregory, and is only one of her novels based on Henry VIII. The movie stars Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson.

And for the kids...

• "The Golden Compass" based on Philip Pullman's very popular Dark Materials series. The movie stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (should 007 be in a kids movie?).


• "Charlie Wilson's War" based on the book by George Crile, and starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

Book Sale Bargains: a buck a bag or box!

Prices have been reduced today to a dollar for a bag or box of books. There are still plenty of books to choose from in all categories, including children’s books. How ever you want to carry them out, it’s a bargain!

The Teenager that Made My Day

The Library has a suggestion box in the Teen Corner. We never know what will be waiting for us there: earnest ideas for improvements, pleas for certain books, or rude suggestions. This time we found a note that made us smile.

Halloween @ Your Library

Strange things happen here on Halloween. Don’t be surprised to see Librarians transformed into ghouls or patrons turned into pumpkins. Do you dare come to the Library today? It is a haunted place….Elizabeth Anne Leach was a librarian at the Dover Public Library from 1945 to 1959. During a trustees meeting she complained of not feeling well but refused to desert her post. She lay down on the ancient leather "fainting couch" and never woke again.

There are often mysterious noises in the library, particularly at closing, when the rooms are dark and silent. Sometimes strange things happen in the night. Books are moved, papers disappear or re-appear. When we hear the unexplained noises, the sound of leather shoes on wooden floors that are now covered by carpet, or the creak of a door opening in an empty room, we wish our gentle Miss Leach a good night and leave her to her library.

Reel Reads

While searching on Amazon I came across something I had never heard of before--book trailers. Book trailers are just like movie trailers except they are depicting the plot of a book--pretty cool. These book trailers were created by students at the New York Film Academy, for 3 young adult books: "Glass" by Ellen Hopkins, "Hacking Harvard" by Robin Wasserman, and "The Inner Circle" by Kate Brian. Follow this link to watch the videos, and if the trailers tempt you into wanting to read the books, "Glass" and "The Inner Circle" are currently available at the library, and "Hacking Harvard" will be in soon.

Book Sale Begins with a Rush!

The book sale got off to a great start. At 9am sharp bibliophiles charged up the staircase to search for treasures.

One clever patron even brought a little red wagon to load his finds into. It warms this librarian's heart to see people attending a book sale like it was a Filenes Bargain Basement extravaganza.

Don’t Forget the Book Sale Starts This Weekend!

Book sale starts Saturday, October 27, at 9am for Dover Public Library cardholders only. The general public is welcome Sunday, October 28 at 1pm.

Teen Corner Packed with Dozens of New Books

We have just received a HUGE delivery of new teen books, and they are now on display in the "Teen Corner" of the library. Here are a few of the titles that you can look forward to:

"Bec" by Darren Shan, this is part of the Demonata series
(perfect for Halloween)
"Extras" by Scott Westerfeld author of "Uglies" and "Pretties"
"Glass" by Ellen Hopkins author of the popular book "Crank"
"Nightrise" by Anthony Horowitz, book 3 of the Gatekeepers series
"What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know" by Sonya Sones for those of you who like her last novel in verse "What My Mother Doesn't Know"
"Wyvernhall" by Amelia Atwater-Rhode, volume 5 in The Kiesha’ra series

Book Sale Preparations Continue

Volunteers and staff members continue to unpack and organize scads of books. The Trustees Room has been dedicated to multimedia. It is full of audio books, music CDs and tapes, DVDs and videocassettes.

A table has been set up outside the Director's office to hold all the cookbooks.

This sale is so huge we simply don't have room for more books so we ask that you wait to bring any donations in until mid November. See you Saturday!

New Service for Book Groups!

Are you in a book club or discussion group? Are your members always hunting for multiple copies of a title so you can all read the same book? Would you rather not have to resort to purchasing your copy if an ‘early bird’ has already been checked out at the library?

Well, “Reads-to-Go” has all the solutions! We are pleased to join this consortium of NH librarians who are offering book groups the chance to borrow 15 paperback copies of a single title in a convenient travel bag. Our library has purchased “The Time Traveler’s Wife” book group kit which, besides the 15 copies, includes discussion questions, an author bio, and a handy-dandy sign-out sheet to help the group leader keep track of who has which copy!

The good news is that our kit can be borrowed by your book group (or loaned to a book group in another part of the state). The better news is that our participation in “Reads-to-Go” now gives your book group access to 30 more (and growing!) kits available through interlibrary loan. Each kit circulates for eight weeks before it must return to the loaning library.

Here are the kits currently available in NH to book groups: A Girl Named Zippy, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Bel Canto, Burning Marguerite, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Desert Queen, The Dogs of Babel, Ender's Game, The Ginger Tree, The Glass Castle, Kitchen Confidential, Last Days of Summer, The Lobster Chronicles, The Man Who Ate the 747, The Measure of a Man, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, The Memory of Running, My Sister's Keeper, Persepolis, The Red Tent, The Samurai's Garden, Shadow Divers, Sister of My Heart, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Under the Banner of Heaven, Water for Elephants, and Year of Wonders.

Be sure to let us know if you have additional book suggestions for “Reads-to-Go” kits and we’ll pass them along to the selection committee. Please speak to a librarian at the Adult Circulation desk if you’d like to borrow any of these 15-title kits for your own book group!

Should you care that Dumbledore is gay?

J.K. Rowling announced on Friday that Dumbledore is gay (for the very few of you that don't know who Dumbledore is, he is a character in the wildly popular Harry Potter series). My husband announced this news blip to me, and waited for my reaction--all I could think is... Dumbledore doesn't have time for um.. relations because he is too busy saving the wizarding world and fighting against the forces of evil. Harry Potter is a work of fantasy, and for me that means that I don't think of the characters as everyday people eating, sleeping, and whatever else. They have special powers--I mean how many people do you know that can save their memories in a stone pensieve--not many I would think. Many people disagree with my reaction, there has been both celebration and condemnation of the announcement, but for me Dumbledore is simply a wonderful character in a wonderful series gay or not. Agree or disagree? Let me know.

Get Ready for the Big Book Sale!

Volunteers and staff members have been hard at work all day lugging boxes of books to the Lecture Hall and organizing them. They have to finish by this Saturday when eager Library card holders will storm up the stairs to get first pick. Some of the treasures unpacked today include:
6th Target by James Patterson
Daddy's Girl by Lisa Scottoline
S is for Silence by Sue Grafton
and Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.

A new "Resources for Adoptive Families" notebook is now available in the Children's Room thanks to the inspiration of two adoptive moms who "had the dream of seeing a wide range of adoption and fostering related materials available in our public library system". They have compiled materials and resources for getting started, for help along the way and for support after the adoption has been completed.

Included in this notebook is information on two groups, Coastal New Hampshire Adoptive Families and Adoptive Families Together, that support local adoptive families with information and monthly activities. Also included are recommended book lists, music, magazines, agencies and websites for adoptive families. (When visiting the Children's Room or our website, be sure to check out our "Good Books" lists of adoption related stories, Picture Books & A Selection of Fiction for Older Readers)

We want to thank Jody Kahn and Julie Burke for their inspiration, their hard work and for their generous donation to the Dover Public Library.

Learn about Antique Dover Sheet Music Wednesday at 7

The Friends of the Dover Public Library present Antique Dover Sheet Music this Wednesday, October 17, at 7pm in the Lecture Hall.

Culled from an enormous collection of old sheet music are the sounds of Dover. Take a look at the quality commercial artwork on the covers, the local shops that used their names to increase sales and listen to the music as performed by Meredith Linewebber. The Rochester Fair provided inspiration for many songs which are included in this interesting history of music that was stirring, romantic, had verses that rhymed and tunes that weren’t noise. Come and sing-along.

Meredith Linewebber is The Wand’ring Minstrel, an itinerant music teacher and performer. She started collecting music early in her life. The first large pile came her way from a neighbor in Swampscott, Ma where she grew up. That collection was mostly WWI and WWII sheet music. While in college, she was on her way home from a friend’s house and found a large collection of 1890’s music in a trash can. Along with serendipitous finds, people leave boxes on her deck, with or without a note. Assembling Dover sheet music from her extensive collection was a piece of cake! Meredith has donated a substantial portion of her collection to the Rochester Public Library, another famed Carnegie Library.

What Was That Title Again?

The subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list have compiled a very funny list of book titles that readers have garbled. If someone asked you for Oranges and Peaches would you know they wanted Origin of the Species? Can you guess what the patrons who asked for Fire Hydrant 415, I Left My Heart at Broken Arm, Salad at a Bad Café, and Satanic Nurses were looking for?

Surf's Up tomorrow!

Come to the Lecture Hall Saturday, October 13 at 2pm to see Surf's Up. This animated family comedy features a behind-the-scenes look at the annual Penguin World Surfing Championship, and its newest participant, up-and-comer Cody Maverick. Surf's Up is rated PG.

What Novel Are You?

Here’s a fun little quiz if you have a minute to kill, well, it really only takes a half a minute. Answer six quick questions to find your exact literary match out of 64 possible books! I was pleased to find that I am matched with Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Have You Downloaded an Audio Book Lately?

Have you looked at the downloadable audiobooks recently? New titles are constantly being added. These are some of the titles that were added in September:

Title	Author
Airborn	Oppel, Kenneth
Bridge of Sighs	Russo, Richard
The Choice	Sparks, Nicholas
The Dark Is Rising	Cooper, Susan
The Death Trust	Rollins, David
Eclipse	Meyer, Stephenie
Fire in the Blood	Nemirovsky, Irene
The House of Thunder	Koontz, Dean
Marley	Grogan, John
The Nine	Toobin, Jeffrey
Shoot Him If He Runs	Woods, Stuart
Cold Fire	Koontz, Dean
Getting Rid of Matthew	Fallon, Jane
Into the Wild	Krakauer, Jon
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac	Zevin, Gabrielle
The 47th Samurai	Hunter, Stephen
To Tame a Highland Warrior	Moning, Karen Marie
The War	Ward, Geoffrey C.
Wheel of Darkness	Preston, Douglas
The Bad Place	Koontz, Dean
Blood Fever	Higson, Charlie
Devil May Cry	Kenyon, Sherrilyn
Dracula	Stoker, Bram
The Elves of Cintra	Brooks, Terry
"I" Is For Innocent	Grafton, Sue
The Odyssey of Homer	Rasovsky, Yuri
The Red Badge of Courage	Crane, Stephen
A Tale of Two Cities	Dickens, Charles
The Thomas Berryman Number	Patterson, James
Xenocide	Card, Orson Scott
You've Been Warned	Patterson, James
Back Spin	Coben, Harlan
Drop Shot	Coben, Harlan
Eye of the Beholder	Ellis, David
Last Night I Dreamed of Peace	Tram, Dang Thuy
Love, Stargirl	Spinelli, Jerry
Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports	Patterson, James
Power Play	Finder, Joseph
Sandworms of Dune	Herbert, Brian
Songs Without Words	Packer, Ann
The View From Mount Joy	Landvik, Lorna

The Library will be closed October 8th

The Library will be closed Monday, October 8 for the Columbus Day holiday.

I Read Banned Books

The Dead Zone by Stephen King was challenged, removed, and banned because of "filthy language".

I Read Banned Books

Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman has been banned for “inherent racism.” You can read the full text of the story online at http://www.aquinohotline.com/sambo.html

I Read Banned Books

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle has been challenged for offensive language, undermining religious beliefs, promoting witchcraft, crystal balls, and demons. It was challenged in the Anniston, Alabama schools in1990 due to the book's listing the name of Jesus Christ together with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists, and religious leaders when referring to those who defend earth against evil.

I Read Banned Books

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut was challenged in many communities, and burned in Drake, North Dakota in 1973. Most complaints are for obscene language, sexual themes, and violence.

I Read Banned Books

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson

The most challenged book in 2006, is the true story of Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins at New York’s Central Park who raised an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple. Protesters felt it promoted homosexuality, was anti-family, and unsuited to the age group.

I read Banned Books

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee consistently ranks near the top of the American Library Association's list of 100 most frequently banned books. Most complaints mention profanity and racial slurs, including the "N-word".