There aren鈥檛 many places in the world where students (and adults) have access to so much to read. In fact, every time I go into my Overdrive or Goodreads apps looking for another title to fill my car rides and dog walks, I鈥檓 overwhelmed by the choices.
But here, in the 鈥渓and of the free,鈥� there are some who would deprive our kids of a good read. Since 2002, the 起点传媒Intellectual Freedom Center has kept track of the titles that have been challenged, the texts we鈥檝e worked to defend. The list features about 375 individual titles, averaging 24 titles per year. But many of these titles鈥�The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Bluest Eye, for example鈥攈ave been challenged multiple times. Frankly, most of the really good books are being taught, and they鈥檙e being challenged.
Unlike Asir Nafisi鈥檚 students described in her memoir , American students should have the right to read without fear of being arrested by a morality squad staging an arbitrary raid. 
Nor should students be deprived of some books others burn because they don鈥檛 want the students to read them, as parents did to Rudolfo Anaya鈥檚 in.
That鈥檚 why for one week a year, during 聽(which began on Sunday), we pause and take time to celebrate , wishing our students happy volumes of reading the books they choose.