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Kansas City Public Library spotlights Banned Books Week with 'Community Bookshelf'

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The "Community Bookshelf" installation on the wall of the Kansas City Public Library's Central location features 42 classic titles. A third of them have been banned or challenged.
Kansas City Public Library
The "Community Bookshelf" installation on the wall of the Kansas City Public Library's Central location features 42 classic titles. A third of them have been banned or challenged.

Of the titles depicted on the iconic 26-foot-tall book spines on the Kansas City Public Library's parking garage, 11 have been banned or challenged in the past.

For Banned Books Week, the Kansas City Public Library presented a visual reminder of what library bookshelves could look like when books are banned.

The library hung banners from its parking structure showing which titles would not be there had they been successfully challenged and banned.

The library's Crystal Faris discussed some of reasons people give for challenging books, the new Missouri law that resulted from Senate Bill 775 and what libraries around the state are doing in response to it.

  • Crystal Faris, deputy director of youth and family engagement at KC Public Library
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