Good Enough to Eat is a celebration of our freedom to read, in which participants create food entries based on their favorite banned or challenged books. The event is usually held during ALA's Banned Books Week which celebrates the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.

Books, particularly those for our young people, have been subject to censorship in the past and continue to be under scrutiny today. Anyone can challenge a book, and it is typically up to the School or Library Board whether to ban the challenged book and remove it from shelves. A challenge is defined by the American Library Association as an attempt to remove or restrict access to certain materials, usually based on the objections of a person or group. Some libraries and schools have a formalized process for challenging books, such as filling out forms, etc. Thanks to librarians, teachers, and other adults in children's lives, many challenges are unsuccessful.

With children's books, challenges are often made by well-meaning people who wish to "protect" children from various topics that might be in a book. Statistically, parents are the group that challenges books most often. Some reasons for past challenges include:

1. The book contains sexually explicit material.
2. The book contains offensive language.
3. The book is unsuited to its age group.

Find more Banned and Challenged Book Statistics here: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengesbytype

Below you will find links to photos from past Good Enough to Eat celebrations at the McConnell Center for the Study of Youth Literature.

• Good Enough to Eat 2009
• Good Enough to Eat 2010
• Good Enough to Eat 2011

Source: ALA. (2012). Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read. Retrieved from: http://www.ala.org/bbw