Banned and Challenged Books ~ with Nancy Pearl and Rick Wartzmen

 

To Help Support Banned Books Week we have four audio broadcasts about banned and challenged books.  A bit about the how and why books are challenged or banned.

Penguin Classics ~ On Air radio series has four clips around Banned and Challenged Books as the discussion topic for its latest broadcast. Hosted by Penguin Classics Editorial Director, Elda Rotor, this engaging episode will coincide with Banned Books Week, happening this week from September 25th – October 2nd.

This broadcast is available at their website and through iTunes – which can be found by linking on the top right on the text “View More By This Publisher” and bring up itunes on your screen. Subscribe to Penguin Classic on Air. You can tune into SIRIUS channel 117 and XM channel 163, or listen to the imbedded section at the bottom of this post.

It features the unparalleled perspective of Nancy Pearl, librarian extraordinaire and author of the critically acclaimed Book Lust, More Book Lust, and Book Crush (links to recent review here at Layers of Thought.)  This first episode focuses on several talking points, including the difference between a banned and challenged book, and guides the listener through the process of how a book comes to be banned or challenged. Drawing from years of experience, Nancy also gives great insight to the invaluable relationship between a library and its community.

Nancy and Elda also discuss famously banned books such as Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and J.K. Rowling’s highly challenged modern classics—the Harry Potter series.

Also featured in this four part audio is Rick Wartzmen, author of Obscene in the Extreme: the Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. In his fascinating interview, Wartzman describes the crucial impact politics and reader climate have on why some books turn into scandals, paying particular attention to the nationwide uproar surrounding Grapes of Wrath and Gretchen Knief, the lone librarian who stood up against its banning and burning in the 1930s.

Below you can watch and listen to this series with each being about 6 minutes long. 

 

 

If you’re interested in banned or challenged books take a few minutes to listen to these informative discussions.

Penguin has sent this information to Layers of Thought to share with you all. Thank you Elaine.

Let us leave you with a small challenge:  Find a favorite challenged or banned book and let us know in the comments. If you can tell us why it was challenged or banned, great. Better yet, link your review(s) so we can share them with our readers. I will link them at the bottom of this post.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!