Image by Roger Roth, Available through the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
Today marks the last day of an annual event in the book world, Banned Books Week.
It seems shocking that in this day and age of the internet, the age of information at one's fingertips, that there are still people who think that banning books at a library or a school will keep the offending words from the "victims'" eyes.
When I first heard of this yearly event, I thought it was a thing of the past. That we were highlighting years past when books with "sinister messages" were kept off the shelves. But then I learned that, unfortunately, this still happens. I can be fairly idealistic at times so I guess I just preferred to think that we were long past all that censorship business.
Adults who are doing the challenging are going about this all wrong. If they want a book banned, they should merely never mention it. As soon as kids learn there is something they can't have, what do they want? The item that is being kept from them!
Most authors probably don't mind if their books are challenged because it means more people will read the "offending" books, if only to see if they agree about the "subversive material."
My life must be filled with lots of offensive moments and questionable material because I don't think any of the challenged books are that shocking. I've read some and not read many others, but the reason has never been because they were kept under lock and key away from me. I was merely not interested in them. Those that I've read merely seem enlightening and not distressing.
Or at least not distressing for the reasons that they've been challenged. Last year I read Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian because I had seen it was included on numerous lists of banned books and yet it was always included in my store's table of summer reading titles. On the ALA's list of challenged books, the first two reasons for wanting the book banned are "offensive language; racism." Which is exactly why this book should be read! Because the main character, a Native American living in poverty on a reservation, endures racism and offensive language at the hands of his peers and many of the adults he encounters. Yes, the book contains these things [offensive language and racism] because it is imperative to the story. Why should it be watered down to "save the readers from this harm" when there are real kids who endure what this fictional character is detailing in his journal?
Keeping these kinds of struggles from young readers will not shield them from the realities of life, merely of the ability to understand these struggles when they confront them in their own lives. And they will confront them if they haven't already. It is best to lead informed minds into the world, prepared to handle what life throws at them, and not let them think they can shield themselves from the struggles that they will face.
