Celebrate Banned Book Week by Taking a Stand!

Today begins Banned Book Week! Banned Book Week is a chance for everyone to express their desire for intellectual freedom. It is amazing to me that someone would try to take away our right to read what we want just because the book contradicts what "someone" believes to be right – because the book discusses sex, or masturbation, or violence, or racism. We read to identify with someone. We read to know we aren’t alone. We read to escape ourselves. We read for excitement, for knowledge, for fun. By banning books that discuss the ugly truths of life, we take away these privileges. Life is not always pretty, and banning books is not going to "fix" life.

Please understand that I ABSOLUTELY believe that parents should always monitor what their children read. As a parent myself, I always make myself available to discuss books my children are reading and concepts they may not understand. And of course, I always make sure my kids are at a maturity level appropriate for the materials they are reading – that is called being a responsible parent. The idea that someone I don’t even know would try to tell me what my kids or I should read infuriates me. Our children are growing up in a different world from what we did. They face situations nowadays that we didn’t encounter (at least as much) when we were children. Should racy books be teaching our children? Of course not! That is our job! But the right to read a book is an incredible freedom to identify, to know we aren’t alone, to escape, to become excited, to learn. 

Would you not teach your kids to invest their money because there is a chance they may lose it? Would you not allow your kids to watch the news because there is a chance they may hear about violence or murder or sex or homosexuality? Kids aren’t stupid; in fact, they grow up much, much faster than any of us want them to. Are we supposed to send them out into the world blind to the realities that will quickly unfold before them? Do we send them out into the world believing the feelings they have are "strange" or that they are weird? No. To be confident, successful adults, children need to believe they are just like everyone else. They need to be able to relate to others.

What message are we sending to our children? If you don’t like something or if something is different, we throw it away or make it disappear. America preaches tolerance on one hand while they are demonstrating intolerance with the other.

During Banned Book Week, the librarian at the university I attended would post a list of books that were banned or had been targets of attempted bannings in the library. Next to the list, she would post a HUGE paper for people to sign after they had read one of the books. Our goal as a university: read as many of these "dangerous" books as possible in one week.

So, what books have been banned? What books are they TRYING to take away from us? Here is a list of some of them…I think you will be surprised. 

The American Library Association’s top ten most challenged books in 2009 are as follows:

Book Title	Author	Reasons for Attempted Banning
ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (whole series)	Lauren Myracle	Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
And Tango Makes Three	Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson	Homosexuality
The Perks of Being a Wallflower	Stephen Chbosky	Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
To Kill a Mockingbird	Harper Lee	Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
Twilight	Stephanie Meyer	Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
Catcher in the Rye	J.D. Salinger	Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
My Sister’s Keeper	Jodi Picoult	Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things	Carolyn Mackler	Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
The Color Purple	Alice Walker	Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
The Chocolate War	Robert Cormier	Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

There is a new list this year for the top 100 most challenged/banned titles of the decade (2000-2009). You can find them here: http://tinyurl.com/top100fcb. Again, I think you will be surprised by some of the titles: Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain), Captain Underpants (Dav Pilkey - seriously??), to name just a few.

So here is my challenge to all of you: READ, read, read - as many of these books as you can. Take a stand against this blatant attempt for the few to rule the many. Let me hear from you, what are your thoughts about the banning of these books – some of them classics! We grew up with these books. Why would anyone take them away from our children? Parents: be responsible for your own children. YOU take the responsibility to ensure your kids aren’t reading something they aren’t ready for or don’t understand. Who else knows them better?! But don’t tell me how to be a parent or how to raise my kids – or what book I can read! Does making the books go away make the "bad things" go away?

I could go on about this forever, but I will climb down off my soap box now and leave the discussion to you. =)

Until next time, make reading and writing your key to the future!

Your copy editor,

Laura