Banned, burned, and bad books
Emma Callis
2nd hour
I found this picture at http://cockingasnook.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/freadomposter2007.jpg
1. Intro
When you think of banned books you must think they are really bad. That they must have lies or drugs and bad things like that. Its true most banned books have those in them but some are also classic tales like Little Red Riding Hood or The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn are also banned in some libraries. Famous literatures like To Kill A Mocking Bird or Of Mice And Men have been on the top ten-banned book list since the 1990’s. Not only are banning books wrong but also it just adds fuel to the flame making more people curious to read the book. So what comes from banning books? Not much
2. What, who, and how
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” That was a part of the First Amendment to the constitution stating that it’s not okay to ban something yet banning books carries on. So who are these terrible people that are going against the first amendment? Just good old mom and dad. Your parents are the ones banning books in most cases. Websites like PABBIS (parents against bad books in school) tell parents to “monitor what your kids read like a hawk”. Now that you know how you probably want to know why. Well as the American Library Association (ALA) says the top three reasons that books are banned is that they are “sexually explicit” contain “offensive language,” and may be “unsuited to age group”.
3. The banned books
Penguins are cute and cuddly and many people’s favorite animals so what I don’t understand is why the number one banned book in America is about penguins. The book And Tango Makes Three is about two boy penguins that fall in love and is also the number one banned book in America. In second place comes The Chocolate War and in third Olives Ocean. Also on the American library associations top ten banned books is the popular book The Golden Compass that was made into a movie just last year. A popular event that happens every year to support these banned books is banned book week. Banned book week is held in the last week of September and is celebrated in Michigan. Banned book week is celebrated so that we can express one’s freedom to choose. This celebration started in 1982 and is still going on today.
4. Fuel to the fire
Many people have been against banning books like the famous John Berry who says “if your library isn’t unsafe then it probably isn’t doing isn’t job” and Ralph Emerson says “every banned book enlightens the world” which in this case means that if you ban a book more people are going to read the book and just be more curious. If you ban a book it is when materials are actually removed from the library. “Restricting it” from people, which is confused a lot with challenging books, is when it is a formal, oral, or written attempt to remove or restrict a book. Challenging and banning is defiantly not the same thing and never confused with book burning. Book burning used to be an efficient way to ban books. The most famous burned book was Harry Potter by a church group who thought it was not right and against it well even though they hadn’t even read the book. Burning books doesn’t happen very much any more but book banning is just a more complicated way to do it.
5. All kind of books
You would think that having no textbooks would be good and cool but banning textbooks is not. There have been campaigns against textbooks because of opinions or views of the text books. More than 50 textbooks in America tried to be banned. More than just textbooks have been banned though. The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer were called “trash only suitable for slums.” The book The Grapes Of Wrath that was a best seller was on the American Library Association’s top ten banned books in the years 1966, 1973, 1977, and 1982. Some of the most famous banned books have been very famous which I guess the banning is only making it more famous.
6. Conclusion
Banning books may never stop but until it does we should keep fighting it and wait until books like and tango makes three are aloud back into most library’s and we are free to read what we want to read. If you stop banning books so will others, so celebrate today and read a banned book.
Bibliography
Anne Haight and Chandler Grannis "banned books from 387 B.C to 1978 A.D." 1978
“Censorship quotes” march 6 ,2005 http://quotes.forbiddenlibrary.com/
Herbert n. foetel “banned in the u.s.a” 1994
Kennedy, Elizabeth, “there burning books again” 2009 http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/censorship/a/burningbooks.htm
Nicholes Karolides, Margret Bald, and Dawn b. Sova "100 banned books censorship histories of the worl of literature" 1999
"pabbis" http://www.pabbis.com parnets
"what to do" http://www.pabbis.com/whattodo.html parents
William Noble "bookbanning in america" 1990
" talking about banned books" http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/firstamendment/talking.htm 1990-2008