Find out more. Here are some informative and thought provoking articles on the freedom to read, censorship, book banning and free access to information:
Do you see any common themes amongst all these books?
These are just some of the books that have been challenged, banned and removed from school libraries in the USA, just this year. The freedom to read what you want to read is a fundamental cornerstone of democracy. However, just as democracy itself is under siege around the world, the freedom to read cannot be taken for granted. Anti-democratic forces are always at work to undermine your freedom to read and other democratic rights. You must stand up for those rights.
Is it a coincidence that the books seen above deal with themes such as discrimination, racism, and oppression, or have central characters that come from marginalized groups?
“The animating idea of The 1619 Project is that our national narrative is more accurately told if we begin not on July 4, 1776, but in late August of 1619, when a ship arrived in Jamestown bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival inaugurated a barbaric and unprecedented system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the country’s very origin. The 1619 Project tells this new origin story, placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country. Orchestrated by the editors of The New York Times Magazine, led by MacArthur “genius” and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, this collection of essays and historical vignettes includes some of the most outstanding journalists, thinkers, and scholars of American history and culture-including Linda Villarosa, Jamelle Bouie, Jeneen Interlandi, Matthew Desmond, Wesley Morris, and Bryan Stevenson. Together, their work shows how the tendrils of 1619-of slavery and resistance to slavery-reach into every part of our contemporary culture, from voting, housing and healthcare, to the way we sing and dance, the way we tell stories, and the way we worship. Interstitial works of flash fiction and poetry bring the history to life through the imaginative interpretations of some of our greatest writers. The 1619 Project ultimately sends a very strong message: We must have a clear vision of this history if we are to understand our present dilemmas. Only by reckoning with this difficult history and trying as hard as we can to undersand its powerful influence on our present, can we prepare ourselves for a more just future” (source: TitlePeek)
Read to learn. Read to escape. Read to find out more about something you are interested in. Read to laugh. Read to cry. Read to see life through the eyes of different people in different times and places. Read for the sake of reading.
Tutorial time takes place from 9:24 to 9:57, everyday, across the school. In many classrooms around the building students will take time to get extra help from teachers, or to study for tests, or to read just for the sake of reading!
Come down to the school library to find something good to read. We have something for everybody. Fiction or non-fiction. A wide range of genres. Books for different reading abilities. Old classics and brand-new bestsellers. We have Manga. Sports books. Young Adult fiction. Science fiction. Biography. Graphic novels. Fantasy. And so much more.
The school library is also a great place to read during tutorial time! We have comfy chairs spread around the library, including the super-silent “Zen Den.” You can count on a quiet and comfortable environment to enjoy some reading.
Here is just a small sample of books that we have to help you learn more about Black Canadians, African-Americans, and other people in the African Diaspora, as we observe and celebrate Black History Month.
Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School Library 