Let Your Voice Be Heard: Virtual Read-Out at #alaac16

Are you missing your weekly storytime fix?  Perhaps you are a tad dramatic? Are you passionate about the freedom to read?   If any or all of these apply to you,  make sure to stop by the Virtual Read Out stage, just outside the entrance to the Exhibits Hall.  The Read-Out is sponsored by ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom and SAGE.

It’s easy.  Really, I promise.  Here are the steps:

• Select a book. There is a good collection of banned/challenged books from which to select.
• Pick out an excerpt to read.
• Hop up on a stool
• Introduce yourself
• Explain why you chose that particular book
• Read for a minute or so.

This morning, I came across the stage purely by accident.  But what a fortuitous accident it turned out to be. I was heading to the Exhibits Hall after a meeting and stopped to see what was being filmed.  I ended up staying and reading.

l almost went with Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (a book I adore), but then I spotted it:  one of my most beloved childhood books, Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Wilder’s books resonated with me.  Laura told us all the story of her youth, but I felt she was speaking directly to me.  She presented a fascinating window into another time — when buffalo and prairie chickens still roamed; when the primary mode of transportation was horse and wagon and tenacity; and a penny, tin cup and a candy cane were the best presents ever.  These books kindled in me a passion for history that remains to this day.

This book, and the rest of the series,  offer a view of American history told from just one perspective — that of a young girl moving across the prairie with her family.

Join in and let your voice be heard!

The videos will be posted as part of Banned Books Week.   Check out last year’s Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out!