Banned Book week kicks off with special video that includes reading from 'Harry Potter'

MuggleNet launches Banned Book Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read, which begins Sunday, September 30th and goes until October 6th, with a special video that was created from Bookmans Bookstore, a used bookstore chain in Arizona. The Bookmans video shown above showcases a reading from a variety of banned books, including Harry Potter (although the excerpt used is actually from the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).

During Bookmans' 36-year fight against censorship, the shattered light bulb emerged as one of the more powerful symbols. In this video, combining passages from banned books read by Bookmans customers and employees, they created a statement about how books inform, engage and inspire the light in each of us.

The Harry Potter book series was listed as the Top Most Challenged Book of the past decade according to the American Library Association for various issues including occult/Satanism and anti-family themes. So what is a "Challenged Book"? It is a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed or restricted because of content or appropriateness. (Of special note: another book on the list of the Most Challenged Books from 2000-2009 was The Perks of Being a Wallflower with which a film adaptation starring Harry Potter Emma Watson was recently released)

Celebrate Banned Book Week this week by reading one of the banned or challenged books.