You always see those tables at your school library or in the book stores. Banned books is what the sign says. There were always books that surprised me. These were books that I had read before and thought were good. The only question that I would ask myself is: "Why are they banned?"
Banning a book, an essay, or a play is a form of censorship. Some countries have specific reasons as to why they banned the book while others have unspecified reasons. Nonetheless, for some works there was always an expiration date on the ban. Other works are still banned and being challenged to this day.
For example, John Green's novel Looking for Alaska was banned by a Tennessee school district in 2012. Now, I liked Looking for Alaska, so when I first saw this on the banned books table at the book store I was shocked. Anyway, the book came under fire after several parents had complained about their high school students reading the book for school. That prompted the principal to go through it and he decided to pull it from the curriculum. The would still in the school just.........in the library.
Turns out this wasn't the first time Looking for Alaska has had these sort of troubles. The book had already been withdraw twice from one school district in Depew, NY and one in Knox County, TN.
In order to find out more about this banned book business-I went to the American Library Association's website. Basically, there is a banned book week typically held at the end of September. Their goal is to celebrate intellectual freedom. The 2015 top ten most challenged books list included: Looking For Alaska (#1), Fifty Shades of Grey (#2), I Am Jazz (#3), and The Bible (#6).
They had the reasons listed as to why the books were banned and my favorites were two reasons that were given about Fifty Shades of Grey. One reason was that it was "poorly written" and the other was that there were "concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it."
Now, I've been a teenager for a pretty long time and some of the people I know hesitated reading the book when it came out. My question is was that a complaint specific to where the people who complained about it came from? Did their children show signs of wanting to try the stuff that they read or was it all assumptions? In no means am I criticizing these people's complaints, it's just that if I had the chance to ask them these questions I would.
To be honest, I really do not understand the practice of banning books. Our country grants us freedom of speech at birth only to censor people when they attempt to share their ideas and stories. It's insane to think that you can control what people read by censorship.
Hopefully one day, the practice of banning books will become illegal and then everyone will have the freedom to read (or write) whatever they want.
