Captain Underpants, Fifty Shades of Grey and Looking for Alaska all have one thing in common. They are among the top 10 frequently challenged books for 2013, and Banned Books Week at the St. Ambrose University Library is drawing attention to this. National Banned Books Week is Sept. 21-27 and the focus this year is on comic books and graphic novels. The SAU Library has put together three different events as part of this week to draw attention to the fact that all kinds of books are banned. “We want to highlight the fact that even though we can buy whatever we want, there’s always someone who wants it removed,” Joyce Haack, SAU library technician said. “We don’t want someone else limiting what we read.” The first portion of Banned Books Week at the Library is already in full swing. The archivist, Onnica Marquez, put together three display cases centered around this year’s theme. They contain explanations of what makes a comic book and graphic novels, examples from different countries and a survey to see if students can tell the difference between the two.
A drawing for comic books will be held on Sept. 26 at 3:00 p.m. in the Library. Students may sign up at the desk throughout the week for a chance to win a small bundle of them. The last event is back for the second year in a row. The Penguin Classics book truck will be parked in the Cosgrove parking lot next to the Library on Sept. 26 from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The truck is an old hot dog truck turned book truck where the side windows lift up to reveal shelves of books. The truck workers volunteered to come back this year because they had such a good time last Banned Books Week. They are offering a special promotion for the first 30 customers who buy a book they will receive a free book up to $16. To promote this unique truck, mini versions of the book truck will pop up around campus. Anyone who sees one is encouraged to tweet or post on Facebook that they saw it and use the hashtag “penguin truck spotted” and include a location. For more information on these and other events, the library is on all forms of social media and they encourage everyone to follow them. They even have a Storify board set up for more information on the banning of comic books and graphic novels to stick with this year’s theme.