There arenβt many places in the world where students (and adults) have access to so much to read. In fact, every time I go into my Overdrive or Goodreads apps looking for another title to fill my car rides and dog walks, Iβm overwhelmed by the choices.
But here, in the βland of the free,β there are some who would deprive our kids of a good read. Since 2002, the 51ΑΤΖζ Intellectual Freedom Center has kept track of the titles that have been challenged, the texts weβve worked to defend. The list features about 375 individual titles, averaging 24 titles per year. But many of these titlesβThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Bluest Eye, for exampleβhave been challenged multiple times. Frankly, most of the really good books are being taught, and theyβre being challenged.
Unlike Asir Nafisiβs students described in her memoir , American students should have the right to read without fear of being arrested by a morality squad staging an arbitrary raid. 
Nor should students be deprived of some books others burn because they donβt want the students to read them, as parents did to Rudolfo Anayaβs in.
Thatβs why for one week a year, during Β (which began on Sunday), we pause and take time to celebrate , wishing our students happy volumes of reading the books they choose.