The written word has amazing power. It can open your eyes to new ideas and allow you to view the world through different perspectives. It can create pathways of communication, pass down cultural knowledge, and connect disparate peoples and beliefs. Some books have even changed the world. This power is often why literacy is so strongly centered in cultures across the globe. It is also why some books are seen as a threat that must be contained or eliminated.

In Banned Books, Burned Books: Forbidden Literary Works, you will consider some of the so-called greatest works of literature ever written in English and some literature that’s considered … not so great. What all these works have in common is that someone—a judge, a vocal parent, a government official, or a powerful librarian or a group of “someones” like a library board, PTA, or school board—thought every one of these works was dangerous enough to challenge, or ban, or even burn.