Banned Books Week 2015

Last year, I featured Fun Home by Alison Bechdel as one of book in our display, since BBW featured banned graphic novels. Back then it was a rather obscure graphic novel with maybe a dozen or so copies in our system.

What a difference a year makes! Fun Home is now an award winning Broadway musical. We have 90 copies in our system, with a hold queue and even more copies on order. The book is still making waves as students at Duke University refused to read the book on "moral reasons" 

Researching about banned books is in my top ten list of things I like to do at my job. I enjoy the look of my patron's and co-worker's faces when they pass a display of banned books and exclaim "Wait? Why was this book banned?"

It's also that time of the year when library staff can be a little bit naughty and entice patrons to read those "dirty books" full of insensitive materials, offensive language and depressing subjects.  I feel like the shady figure lurking on a street corner, with a trench coat concealing black market goods; hungry for eager customers.

Which leads to the inspiration for my display. That odd logo on signs across America, the neighborhood watch creep. Who always has reminded me of Phantom of the Opera.

🎶 The Phantom of the Opera wants you....to read these books....🎶 

What horrors lie beneath?

GASP!