Memorial Day Weekend Holiday Hours

Please be advised that our hours this weekend will be as follows:
Friday 9 am - 12 noon
Saturday 9 am - 5 pm
Sunday - CLOSED
Monday - CLOSED

As always, our materials drops on Colburn Street will be available for those returning materials and our Library 24/7 of electronic resources, catalog and e-materials will be available over the holiday weekend.

Library Blog

Read or Listen to Banned Books!

In recognition of National Library Week and the announcement later today about the Most Challenged Books of 2019 by the American Library Association, our library assistant, Doug, has created a list of previously challenged or banned books that are available through Overdrive and the Libby app. Did you know that you can borrow from any consortium in the state of Massachusetts? You just need to add your card to their system. Instructions are located on our Facebook page – Partner Libraries or by checking out our blog post on Electronic Resources. Some of these are always available so check out OverDrive to borrow immediately or place a hold!

If you feel inspired to read or listen to a banned book, we encourage you to enjoy it!

The Color Purple Book Jacket

The Color Purple by Alice Walker: Challenged, rejected,or removed from libraries because of sexually explicit language its “troubling ideas about race relations

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/645084

Lord of the Flies Book Jacket

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding:  Challenged because of lurid sexuality, defamatory statements about God, minorities, and the disabled, and “demoralizing inasmuch as it implies that man is little more than an animal

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/612449

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/114464 (audio)

The Kite Runner Book Jacket

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: Challenged or banned because of its sexual violence, suspicion that it might promote Islam, and lead to terrorism.

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/204519

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/88383 (audio)

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: Challenged for language and explicitness

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/51182

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/85039 (audio)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Book Jacket

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey: Challenged or banned because it glorifies criminal activity, “can corrupt juveniles” and contains descriptions of bizarre violence, torture, death, and human elimination.

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/71117

The Lord of the Rings Book Jacket

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien recorded as being burned outside of a church because it, and other Tolkien novels, are satanic.

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/1044904

A Clockwork Orange Book Jacket

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess: Removed from classrooms and high schools for objectionable language. A bookseller in Utah was arrested for selling the work. Charges were dropped, but he was compelled to close his business and move.

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/2309769

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/134143 (audio)

13 Reasons Why Book Jacket

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher: Challenged or banned because it discusses teen suicide

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/204781

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/138814

Slaughterhouse-Five Book Jacket

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: Challenged or banned because it makes reference to religious matters, contains violence and obsecene language, and its portrayal of women

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/260840

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/76129 (audio)

Animal Farm Book Jacket

Animal Farm by George Orwell: Frequently challenged in the United States as a problem book because of its political content and Orwell has been characterized as a communist. Interestingly, it was also surpressed from an international book display in Moscow in 1977

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/573136

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/132037 (audio)

Beloved Book Jacket

Beloved by Toni Morrison: Challenged or banned because of its depictions of violence, racism, sex, and slavery.

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/148288

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/109825 (audio)

To Kill a Mockingbird Book Jacket

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Challenged and sometimes banned for numerous reasons, including language, racial themes, that it might do damage to the positive integration process, and upset black children who read it.

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/1740251

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/1765512 (audio)

The Hate U Give Book Jacket

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: banned and challenged because it is ‘anti-cop’, for inappropriate language, sexual references, and depictions of drug use

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/2962709

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/2985772 (audio)

Brave New World Book Jacket

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Challenged or removed because of themes of sexuality, drugs, and suicide. And once because the characters showed contempt for religion, marriage, and the family.

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/1695615

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/149851 (audio)

The King James Bible image

The Bible: In 2015, it was number 6 on the American Library Associations list of 10 most challenged books due to its religious viewpoint.

https://mvlc.overdrive.com/media/441352  ( link to King James version)