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ABFFE
UPDATE
August 11, 2009 Previously
in ABFFE Update
Volume 11,
Number 6
Celebrate the Freedom to Read!
ABFFE is asking booksellers to once again help publicize the hundreds of
attacks on books that occur every year in the United States by
participating in Banned Books Week (BBW), which will be held from Sept.
26 through Oct. 3. ABFFE make s
it easy for booksellers to participate by providing a
Banned Books Week
handbook.
The handbook describes a variety of activities, including the creation
of simple displays and organizing easy events like readings from banned
books.
The Banned Books Week handbook features posters that can be downloaded
and reproduced at a local copy shop for a nominal fee. This year's
handbook includes two posters based on the new graphic novel adaptation
of the anti-censorship classic, Fahrenheit 451 (Hill and Wang,
978-0809051014).
For a limited time, ABFFE is also discounting the price of its popular
Freadom products. To download an order form, click
here.
ABFFE also helps booksellers promote their Banned Books Week activities.
Last year, it joined the American Library Association (ALA) in launching
the first Web site dedicated to the event,
www.bannedbooksweek.org.
Bookstores and libraries that would like to be listed on the Web site
can submit details of their Banned Books Week celebration directly using
this link,
http://bannedbooksweek.org/signup/
ABFFE Joins
Amicus Brief in Case Threatening Free Speech
ABFFE has joined the Association of American Publishers, the Freedom
to Read Foundation, and other members of Media Coalition in filing an
amicus brief in a U.S. Supreme Court case that could seriously erode
First Amendment protection for books, magazines, films and recordings.
The Justice Department is asking the court to give the government the
power to censor speech that lacks "serious value." The case involves a
challenge to a federal law banning the sale of pictures of animals being
intentionally injured or killed. The brief is
available online.
ABFFE President Chris Finan explained the importance of the case in
an article
published by Bookselling This Week.
ABFFE has also prepared
talking
points about the case for booksellers.
Two Free Speech Victories in the Courts
ABFFE is celebrating two free speech victories in the courts.
On July 17, a federal appeals court
reversed a lower-court
ruling that upheld the government's right to bar a prominent Muslim
scholar from entering the United States to teach at the University of
Notre Dame. The Bush administration blocked the entry of Tariq Ramadan
under a PATRIOT Act provision excluding foreign nationals who "endorse
or espouse terrorism." A unanimous panel of the Second Circuit Court of
Appeals declared that Ramadan must have the opportunity to prove that he
did not knowingly contribute to a terrorist organization. ABFFE joined
an
amicus brief in this case.
In the second case, a New Jersey appeals court has dismissed a
$5 billion defam ation
suit filed in 2008 by Donald Trump against author Timothy L. O'Brien
and the Hachette Book Group. Trump sued O'Brien for stating in Trump
Nation: The Art of Being the Donald that his net worth is between $150
and $250 million, not the billions that he claims. He demanded that
O'Brien reveal the confidential sources of his estimate. O'Brien said he
had a right to protect the anonymity of his sources under the New Jersey
shield law. A lower court agreed with Trump, but the appeals court sided
with O'Brien. ABFFE joined the Association of American Publishers in
filing an amicus brief in support of O'Brien.
KRRP Opposes Censorship in Litchfield KRRP and Expands "Voices
Against Book Censorship" Feature
On June 18, the Litchfield District School Board in New Hampshire
removed four short stories by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Laura
Lippman and David Sedaris from the "Love/Gender/Family" unit of an
upper-class elective English class at Campbell High School after parents
raised objections at a school board meeting. The Kids' Right to Read
Project (KRRP), which is sponsored by ABFFE and the National Coalition
Against Censorship (NCAC), had opposed the ban in
a letter to the school board.
KRRP is conducting interviews with challenged authors and others
involved in fighting book bans. Recently, it spoke to Maureen Johnson
whose book, The Bermudez Triangle, has been challenged at the Leesburg,
Florida, Public Library. The Johnson interview as well as interviews
with authors Chris Crutcher, Francesca Lia Block, and Brent Hartinger,
can be found
here.
ABFFE Book of the Month: Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The
Authorized%20Seth%20Kushner.jpg)
Adaptation (Hill and Wang) (978-0809051007) by Tim Hamilton
In 1953, Ray Bradbury rented a typewriter in the UCLA library and
wrote Fahrenheit 451 in nine days. (Maybe the speed owed
something to the fact that he was paying 10 cents per hour.) Today,
the classic tale of a bookburner who learns to love books still sells
50,000 copies per year. Tim Hamilton's graphic adaption was published
in July.
To read ABFFE's interview with author Tim Hamilton click
here.
Show Your Support for Freadom!
ABFFE's
popular "freadom" t-shirts, buttons, bookmarks, bumper
stickers and more are available during Banned Books Week and all year round.
To
order online, visit the ABFFE store.
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