I am a little bit late on the Banned Book Week and I always have the best of intentions when it comes to promoting it. But once again, it snuck up on me and I haven’t done anything in my Little Free Library or in the Connestee Falls Library to highlight it. Oh well. At least I will do a little bit. here.
Banned books. What’s all the fuss? Well, some folks get all up in arms about some topics that are written about in books and they petition schools and other places to ban those books. Normally the schools are the ones who are petitioned to remove the books or limit access to them. According to Wikipedia in 2020, the top ten reasons books were challenged and banned included sexual content (92.5% percent of books on the list); offensive language (61.5%); unsuited to age group (49%); religious viewpoint (26%); LGBTQIA+ content (23.5%); violence (19%); racism (16.5%); drugs, alcohol, and smoking (12.5%); “anti-family” content (7%); and political viewpoint (6.5%). A lot of people have a lot of opinions about what should be allowed to be read.
I know this is a touchy subject for many folks. I get it. I picked up a young adult book recently to read and made it about halfway through before deciding the content was just not for me. I made the choice to put the book down and not read it but would it have resonated with some young adult who understood more about what the book was about than me? Yes, absolutely yes.
Some of the books that are banned are ridiculous, in my humble opinion. Here is a very short list of some I found that were “in question” for some reason or another.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ; coarse language, racial stereotypes and use of the N-word
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren: depicting a “depressing view of life” and “immoral situations”
Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank: discussions of puberty and teenage sexuality
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden: LGBT content
Animal Farm by George Orwell: political (Communist) commentary
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner: dealing with issues of death; abortion
I am going to just stop there with some of the books starting with A because as I look at these huge list of books it makes me madder and. madder. It seems to be never ending with new additions every year.
There are numerous sites where you can go to check out what books are on the most challenged list. The American Library Association has a great site where they share a lot of interesting (and disturbing) information.
.
Our own favorite local independent bookstore, Highland Books, has a Banned Books Bingo game going on right now. I think it is brilliant and is giving me a reason to look up some banned books. Hey, anything for a discount, right?
.
.
So it’s up to you. You can choose to read a book or not. You don’t have to love every single book that is written but maybe someone will love one that you couldn’t relate to. Of course it is still important for parents to be involved in discussions with their young readers. We all need to take censorship seriously. I usually shy away fro controversial things here on It’s Just Life but today I felt like I just needed to jump on the Banned Books bandwagon.
Do you have a book that is on a banned book list that you are surprised about? I challenge you to do a little searching for yourself and see just what others object to. It’s pretty eye opening.
