Somewhere along your high school or college career, you probably learned about banned books. Whether it was in the classroom or through your own findings, at some point you found out that your favorite book was actually being challenged by schools and potentially banned altogether, and you were probably outraged.
Generally, books are banned due to a number of reasons, ranging from alcohol to drug use, or from explicit language to sexual content. Usually, the process begins when a parent gets their hands on a book that their child is reading, and challenges it; or in other words, fights for the book to be banned. While we may despise the people who challenge our favorite books, often their reasoning is to protect us. Eventually, the book can be banned, which means now it is removed from libraries, classrooms, and other places in the school system.
While it's great that our parents are trying to protect us, I think it's important for them to hear from the student's point of view. Growing up, I loved to read. I was so shy and found that reading was my one escape to be a more outspoken, risk-taking, imaginative being. The number-one reason I loved reading the most was simply because my books took me to a new world. It was a world that taught me all about the aspects of life that I wanted to know more about, but was too shy to question. For example, the "Junie B. Jones" series was one of my favorites when I was younger. I promise I read just about every book. Junie B. Jones was not the perfect child. Her clothes didn't match, she always seemed to get the short end of the stick, and she was not afraid to speak her mind when it came to people she didn't like. As it turns out, Junie B. Jones is a big-mouthed brat. Words like "stupid" and "dumb" are just too harsh for our children's literature and these books are taking away from their morals and values.
Not only are we faced with challenged children's books, we are dealing with the banning of classics as well. Many of the books we all were forced to read in high school -- "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Their Eyes Were Watching God," "The Scarlet Letter," "The Great Gatsby," and "The Call of The Wild" -- are also banned in schools for sexual content, discrimination, death, propaganda, and other topics we all need to learn about in order to become wholesome human beings.
My days of not being allowed to read books because they are banned are long gone, but as I look forward to my future classroom library, I want to provide the most diverse and interesting book collection that I possibly can for my students. Which ultimately means I must be a voice for the parents everywhere that think certain content is "too explicit" for their child to learn about. There is no reason to take away books like "Junie B. Jones" that are simply entertaining because the main character is a "brat." We've all been brats at some point in our lives. There is no reason to take away books about sexuality, drugs, and alcohol, because teens want to know more about these topics without being too embarrassed to ask. These books tackle real issues, and maybe if students were allowed to read them, they wouldn't be interested in actually engaging in those dangerous activities to get some answers. Banned books shouldn't exist because in reality, banned books are the best books. This summer, take some time to add a few banned/challenged novels to your reading list. I promise, they'll be the best books you've ever read. In case you don't know where to start, here are my top five favorite novels -- all of which happen to be banned:
1. "Looking for Alaska" by John Green: banned for sexual content, alcohol, smoking, and death.
2. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky: banned for homosexuality, sexual content, alcohol, and drug use.
3. "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold: banned for death, sexual content, and violence.
4. "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green: banned for teens dying of cancer (wow), death, sexual content, and crude language.
5. "Holes" by Louis Sachar: banned for violence, morality, not quality literature (alright).
Long story short, banned books are the best books. Children everywhere need to be reading them because they deserve answers without having to ask -- books can do that.
