Multimodal Project
Storyboard Text
- Hello, my name is Antonio and this is my school.
- My school, like many other schools, has a diverse student population.
- We all have diverse cultures, which makes us unique.
- However, it can be hard to find books in school that reflect our lives.
- A major reason behind this lack of diverse books in schools is because of book challenges.
- A book challenge is "a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness."
- Many classic and modern books that are often taught in schools are being challenged or banned.
- Out of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books from 2000-2009, 52% included diverse content.
- What kind of diverse content did over half of those banned or challenged books include?
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- Books with LGBT main or secondary characters, like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, appear on this banned and challenged list.
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- Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher includes characters with both physical and cognitive disabilities and is also on this banned and challenged list.
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- Dozens of books that deal with race or racism are banned or challenged every year. Some of books on this list include The Color Purple by Alice Walker and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
- So many books are kept out of students' hands because they address issues about race, sexuality, and/or disabilities; or are about non-white, LGBTQ and/or disabled characters.
- Reading about people who are different from you increases your empathy, which is your ability to understand the feelings of someone else.
- Ask your teacher or school librarian for good, diverse books to read. Celebrate Banned Books Week with your class. If you want to see your culture better represented in how you learn, keep talking about it and keep reading!
- Works Cited Lo, Malinda. "Book Challenges Suppress Diversity." Diversity in YA, Diversity in YA, 18 Sept. 2014, www.diversityinya.com/2014/09/book-challenges -suppress-diversity/.
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