BTW News Briefs

AAP Announces New "Get Caught Reading at Sea" Promotion

On September 24, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced an extension of the popular "Get Caught Reading" program called "Get Caught Reading at Sea" (GCRS), a cruise for reading enthusiasts that will take place in October 2004. The ship will sail from Galveston, Texas, on October 17, 2004 and will visit ports in Belize, Cozumel, and Progreso, Mexico. Twenty to 25 best-selling and emerging authors will be on board to host daily group discussions. Paperback book titles in the promotion, bearing the GCRS logo, will be available in stores from January through July 2004 and will include instructions on booking the cruise. Additionally, 20 staterooms will be given away to winners in a national radio promotion. Details on the event and participating authors will be available beginning in November 2003 at www.getcaughtreadingatsea.com.

Congressional Leaders Receive Gift of Banned Books

On September 24, in celebration of Banned Books Week, which this year occurs from September 20 through September 27, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) received Get Caught Reading gift bags containing copies of the most challenged books in the United States, including J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The bags were personally presented to Senator Frist and Representative Hastert by former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), one of the founding sponsors of Banned Books Week.

In a note accompanying the gift books bags, Schroeder pointed out that "in communities across the U.S., efforts are underway to remove worthy and relevant books from school classrooms and libraries because someone finds something about them 'offensive.' In one of the most recent examples, a school district superintendent in Kansas without even consulting the school board removed an award-winning book from a ninth-grade class after he reportedly read 'parts' of the book and concluded 'it was not fit for his daughter or granddaughter.'"

Schroeder expressed the hope that the Congressional leaders would read and enjoy the gift books and share them with colleagues.