BANNED AID

Part 2: Theme Your Banned Books Party!

Fandom Forward Presents Book Defenders: fandomforward.org/bookdefenders

This summer, we’re taking action to defend banned books. In Part 1, we showed you how to organize an event. Now, let’s look at how to make your event Banned Books themed!

We’ll cover three main types of ways you can customize your party: using customized decorations, planning special activities, and making themed recipes. Read our suggestions for each one below!

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PARTY BANNED BOOKS THEMED

Decorations

• Display some of your favorite banned books! You might have some on your shelf already, or your local public library likely has some available to borrow. If you are having an in-person event, you could also encourage guests to bring their favorite banned books and talk about them like a book potluck!
• If you have a favorite banned book, what’s your favorite quote from it? You can make a simple or fancy poster depending on how crafty you feel! Type it up, draw it, or use a free design software like Canva to make a quick design.
• Book wanted posters: Use this template to make “wanted” posters for some of your favorite banned books! Just insert a photo of the book, the title, and the reason it is frequently challenged or banned.
• Print out infographics or resources from ALA and Banned Books Week about book censorship and frequently challenged books.
• Add final touches by decorating your space with recycled book pages, caution tape, black out poetry, BANNED stickers or graphics, “burned” pages (soaked in tea/spray painted), etc.

Activities

• Play Heads Up! Write the titles of banned books on index cards.
  Each person will hold one up to their head (without looking at it!),
  people will shout out clues about the book based on the title they see,
  and then, the person will have to guess the book.
• Write the first page of your very own banned book.
• Fill out the banned books trivia crossword puzzle on the next page!

Recipes

Follow one of these recipes based off of banned books by Quirk!

• The Fahrenheit 451: Red Hot Cinnamon Cupcakes
• The Great Gatsby: Pink Champagne Cupcakes
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Huckleberry Cupcakes
• Things Fall Apart: Coffee Cake Crumble Muffins
• Harry Potter: Pumpkin Chess Pie Tart

Don’t forget that you can email info@fandomforward.org for any Book Defenders questions or advice.

When you’re ready, go on to Part 3 to learn about actions to take during your party to fight against the banning of books!