Growing up in a family of readers I was surrounded by books of all shapes and sizes. My Granny always had going one of those “historical bodice-rippers,” while my grandfather would be reading detailed mystery after mystery. My mom loved poetry and every now and then we would catch her writing a short story or poem of her own. My dad was probably the most eclectic reader going from a traditional western to main-stream thriller to even a few of those historical bodice-rippers he would read when no one was looking! I really don’t recall having too many children’s books and definitely no young adult books around like thankfully there are today. Instead, I was picking up any book that sounded remotely interesting and burying my nose into the pages for hours on end {when I could hide away from the farm work đŸ˜‰ }
Of course my family took me to the library and I would check out the maximum number of books allowable…at the time I seem to recall it was 20!
So now every year, when banned books week rolls around, I am eternally grateful to my family for raising me to not only be a reader but to be a reader who thinks and feels and has opinions for herself. No one ever, ever told me “You can’t read that.”
One of my favorite quotes about why it is so important we continue to fight attempts at censorship is from Oscar Wilde, author of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.”
A quick glance at the top three books challenged during 2015 reveals just that –
The Absolutely True Diary of Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie is banned and challenged because “the book contains numerous depictions of sexual behavior, as well as instances of racism, vulgar language, bullying, and violence.” Have you heard that bullying never happens! Quite amazing how far we’ve come as a society, eh?
Persepolis by Marjane Sartrapi challenged for “depicting torture techniques that were used on Iranian dissidents.” Students fighting the challenge responded about the graphic novel panels stating the panels “are no more graphic than images encountered while studying other true events such as the Holocaust or slavery.” Nope, the Iranian Revolution never happened either.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is banned and challenged due to “sexual and violent content.” Yup, the molestation of 11 year old children never happens. . .let’s continue to sweep it under the rug so those victims never learn it didn’t just happen to them and they CAN tell someone their devastating secret.
Can you tell I get a little passionate about this subject? Am I overly passionate and insistent that books are important – especially the books that “shows the world its own shame?”
2015 Banned Books Week Giveaway
In honor of Banned Books Week I’m giving away one Banned Books Composition Notebook from OutofPrintClothing.com and one book of your choice up to $15 from Amazon or The Book Depository – your preference. This is an international giveaway and ends Saturday at 11:59 pm EST. One winner will be chosen at random. Good luck!
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This post is part of the BookJourney.net “Playing to Beat the Banned Week.” I hope you’ll check out some of the other fabulous posts by bloggers at Sheila’s site.
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