Freedom to Read Week: February 25-March 3, 2018

I’m what you call the opposite of a rebel; I fear authority and am just fine with colouring inside the lines until my final days on this earth. However, I do enjoy a bit of ‘rebellious reading’, that is, reading whatever you like, regardless of how other people perceive it-this is how I interpret Freedom to Read Week (FTRW), and the importance of fighting censorship when it comes to what appears on our bookshelves. I found this interesting little video of Canadian Booktubers talking about what FTRW means to them, check it out below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNe7DSM0L00

To celebrate FTRW 2018, my Wordfest book club is teaming up with the Calgary Public Library and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta to present a special evening of celebrating the ‘danger’ of books on February 26 at Memorial Park Library here in Calgary. Come at 5pm to peruse the ‘controversial’ materials on display, and listen to some readings from banned books. At 7pm, we’ll have a group discussion on Mariko and Jillian’s graphic novel This One Summer, which was  the most challenged book in the United States of America in 2016.  Must have some pretty awful stuff in it right? Mostly just teens discovering their sexuality and some profanity actually, but nothing you don’t see on our nightly political news cast these days. Can you hear the sarcasm coming through as I type? I sure hope so. That being said, all opinions are welcome and encouraged at this event because freedom of speech is important too! It’s sure to be a night of thoughtful, respectful discussion (and god help us some laughs!) between book lovers of all types, so click here to register for this free event.