E-Claire: Banned Books Week

Can you guess what week it is? (Hopefully, because it says it in the title of the post) Well, it’s Banned Books Week, where bookstore owners and libraries and just people in general take a stand against Banning Books.

Can you believe in a country where we have freedom of speech, books like the Harry Potter series, or Perks of Being a Wallflower, or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or To Kill a Mockingbird are being banned, and even burned, all over the country? Or I bet you didn’t know that The Lorax by Dr. Suess is banned. Yep, and Shel Silverstein, too. Doesn’t this sound ridiculous? Banning Children/Young Adult books because they talk about being environmentally aware, or they talk about magic, or overcoming prejudice and racism?

Some parents don’t want their children reading Harry Potter because they believe that their child will run away and become a cultist. Really? That just makes me curious as to how many runaway cultists you’ve come across.

We can’t keep banning books. We’re preventing kids from reading and thinking for themselves. Children should be allowed to choose what they want to read because it helps them gain a better vocabulary, literacy, and it will help them form their own ideas and thoughts and morals, as well as expand their creativity.

So maybe next time you’re burning a book, think about all the things you’re taking away from the child you stole it from.