Keep Them Reading

Book excerpt: Keep Them Reading is a concise handbook for teachers, librarians, administrators, and district personnel about how to prevent censorship in a school or district—and what to do if it happens. Written by two award-winning authors who have devoted much of their careers to anti-censorship work, this book discusses the overall importance of reading in all academic endeavors and demonstrates how challenges and censorship can derail even the best literacy program. Each chapter contains practical tools, advice, and resources for building understanding about issues of intellectual freedom and for creating a plan to help all parties work through challenges before they turn into damaging censorship incidents. The last chapter contains advice from authors who have dealt with censorship, such as Judy Blume, and experts on the subject, such as Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship.