Challenged Book Challenge

September 24 - October 1 2010 is
Banned Books Week

This week the Four of Us are celebrating the First Amendment and our freedom to read whatever we want!

What exactly is a banned book? Basically, it is a book to which free access has been denied --for more on why/how/who/what of book banning visit "About Banned and Challenged Books" at the American Library Association's  (ALA)Website.

So, Books for Walls Project Readers, what is your favorite banned book?
For the ALA's list of banned or challenged books 2010 click here
and for the top 100 banned classics: click here.

1/3 Challenge (The Clean Your Bookshelves Challenge!)

This week the Four of Us decided that we needed to make some changes. We live in  a lovely little house in the woods, but there is just too much stuff, and clutter is a surefire way to make space feel small. So we are clearing out 1/3 of our stuff, just giving it away.

The Big Sister letting
books GO!

We decided to invite our readers to join us and clear off your bookshelves! Can you give away every 3rd book? It is hard, but once you begin it gets easier. We grab a book we wonder, most of the time it just sits here, would this book live a happier life if we gave it to the library? And libraries could really use our support these days. And once you clear your bookshelves, you can start filling them again ;)

The Little Sister clearing
the shelves (don't worry
we won't get rid of The Cat!

So far it's been liberating... watch out library and Goodwill, here we come! Are you up for the 1/3 Challenge? Join us, it really is fun...

Guardian's Book Swap is on and it is simply brilliant!

"In deciding what to read, serendipity is something we need more of," Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw said. "The Book Swap is a fascinating idea because you might get a book placed in your hands invisibly, out of nowhere. I've chosen Tolstoy's novella Hadji Murad partly because it is a work of authentic genius, and it's relatively short. I envy the person who finds it and reads it for the first time." (Read the full article here!)

How about a guarantee of 15,000 free books, plus and endless possibility of more --to be found anywhere! The Guardian and Observer Book Swap promises just that, and more, during "Books Season".

Figure A

Here is the scenario... on a lovely stroll through London, a quiet bench beckons you, on that bench is a book. You pick it up, open it to find a bookplate that says "This book now belongs to you"(see figure A)with a lovely note from a complete stranger. Inspired, you run home for books, print out bookplates, write notes to strangers and then leave them all over for other book lovers... 

The Guardian even provides a map if you want to cut to the chase! and palace to post photos of the books you've left. The books are just waiting for you, all over the UK --aren't you tempted. Learn how to take part, click here.

The Book Swap is Great: pass it on... "a chance for writers, readers, publishers to indulge in a grand act of recycling by taking a favourite book, inserting a tribute to its greatness, and leaving it in a public place to be found by someone new. This isn't a club exactly, more a secret society; a chance to quietly pass along a book you have loved to a perfect stranger"  explains Laura Barton. "And in an increasingly virtual age, book swapping offers a rare treat: a real book, left by a real person, simply celebrating how wonderful they found it to be." Read more.

We're working on connecting with friends across the Atlantic to help us take part. Interested in helping us? Send us an email. The Books for Walls Project will ship you a book, all you have to do is put it in a fun place in England --The Sisters have a few requests-- take a photo and help us tell the story --how fun is that?

The Four of Us will keep up with the Book Swap and we'll share updates via facebook.com/TheBooksforWallsProject and twitter.com/BooksforWalls.  

Happy Reading, how about taking a challenge? Click here and take one, or two, or all of them!

Books with Maps Challenge

Are you a person who likes to know where you're heading? Books are a delicious escape and some provide a way to know just where the journey will take its reader... a map. 

The Books with Maps Challenge invites you to help create a list of books with maps. The Four of Us headed into our minds to recall books and then to our shelves to help our memories... head into your mind and search the stacks for Books with Maps.

We've shared a few ideas to get you started!

The Little Sister shared:
Underground
by David Macaulay
go beneath the streets!

Eldest
by Christopher Paolini
Visit Alagaësia.
(and good news, The Dad is finally getting into book three
--the verdict so far, it is worth the read, maybe.
He'll let us know when he is finished!)

Honey, Let's Get a Boat: A Cruising Adventure of America's Great Loop 
by Ron and Eva Stob
Take a cruise in America...
The Dad dreams of this map and navigating  it one day!

The Shadow of the Wind 
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Follow a mystery through the streets of Barcelona.
Warning: if you read this book
you will want to "walk in the footsteps of The Shadow
of the Wind" a walking tour of Barcelona
located at the end of the book!

Now it's your turn...

Please use the following format for your comment:

Title of Book, Author, location of map in the book and what the map is all about.

Over and Over and Over and Over Challenge

It's my turn (The Big Sister) and your Challenge is to...

...tell us about PICTURE BOOKS that you, your kids, your grandkids, your students, nieces, nephews --you get the idea-- can read over and over and over. Books that you LOVE to read over and over and over and over.

Please use the following format for your comment:

Title of Book, Author, Illustrator, and your thoughts on the book.

The H.Y.P.E. Challenge

Learn more about H.Y.P.E

A challenge in honor of the H.Y.P.E. Teen Center at Detroit Public Library. H.Y.P.E. stands for Helping Young People Excel; as many of us know getting a book in the hands of a child at the right time can be life-changing and can absolutely help them excel, even thrive into an avid lover of good books. (Take a moment to read about our visit: (re)DISCOVERING: Detroit Public Library.) The age old question remains: how can we get right books into children's hands at the right time?

Side note: There has been a lot of buzz lately about YA (Young Adult) Literature --a relatively new genre which began its elevation in the 70's and 80's into the full blown genre that it is today. The latest buzz involves the apparent darkness as subject matter that has become a cornerstone of YA Lit. Is the prose and poetry, crafted to assist adolescents through their tumultuous move into adulthood, too dark? Is it all just a marketing scheme, fuel to burn the cash in teens pockets? Some YA books have been compared to car accidents, you cannot help but look, but really, you can't help the victim either, so what is a confused adolescent to do if they do not have help processing the book. Then again times are crazy --W.W.H.C.D. (what would Holden Caufield do, remember him from The Catcher in the Rye?)-- teens definitely need something to connect with. Search "Dark YALit" or #YAsaves and read a bit of the buzz. The issue can seem very polar --but somewhere in the middle are the world's teenagers and they need good books to read!

This weeks challenge sends you in a time machine to your youth, think 12-18. Tell the Books for Walls Project about a book that landed in your hands and, if you care to, share how it helped you then and may still help you now? Please post in the comments below and thank you for taking The H.Y.P.E. Challenge!


Coming Soon: The Books for Walls Project Summer Reading Program, in line with the American Library Association's theme "One World, Many Stories" we've invited several Children and Young Adult Librarians to take part in our Challenges to help kids find their way to good books this summer, including Oneka D. (Wilson) Samet, Teen Services Specialist at the H.Y.P.E Teen Center --read our interview with Oneka. If you are a librarian and would like to help, just stop by every week and take the challenges or contact us for more information.

"Hey Martha!" Challenge

In journalism, they're called "Hey Martha!" stories, 

news so amazing that you just want to shout: 

"Hey Martha, did you hear this story?!" 

Tabloids could never survive without
"Hey Martha!" stories!

How about a "Hey Martha!" book? You know the kind... you're barely 10 pages in and you cannot wait to tell someone about this book. Perhaps it's surprisingly wonderful, perhaps it's the latest bestseller, or perhaps it's so bad you need to tell someone.  Or maybe it's just so good that you'd consider shouting in the library: "Hey Martha, did you hear about this book?"


Your challenge this week: tell us about a "Hey Martha!" Book. A book you just couldn't wait to dish on, a book with facts so juicy you had put it down just to tell someone, a book worth telling everyone about...