Hello everyone! I’m the newest intern at Spencer Hill Press, hailing all the way from Philadelphia! The timing of this blog couldn’t be more perfect for me, as I’m finishing up my graduate thesis on Censorship in Children’s Literature. How lucky for me that my first blog post gets to be about Banned Books Week!
I remember the days when I was so blissfully ignorant to the fact that books were still so widely challenged. Once I found out the truth, I made it my mission to read as many of these “banned” books as I possibly could. For the most part, I’ve found that the reasons for the challenges are silly. In other cases, I’m not that surprised. One thing always remains the same, though: books should never be banned. Besides the fact that it’s strictly against the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech, anyone?), it’s unfair. Sure, it’s necessary for some parents to monitor what their children have access to. But, that by no means, means they should tell everyone else what they can and can’t read. There are always alternate reading assignments given for summer reading lists, or books read in schools if a parent feels a particular way about the subject matter. Taking it away from everyone is simply not fair.
When considering a work of fiction, it’s important to consider the work as a whole. Banning a book because you don’t like the paragraph that talks about teenagers having sex is ignoring the rest of the wonderful qualities of the book. Take Judy Blume’s Forever… for example. That book has been challenged since it was published decades ago. And after reading it, I understand why. But, disagreeing with the sexual relationship between the teenagers in the book is not a good enough reason to remove it from circulation. Because, it also has great information about birth control. The main character in the book is responsible and smart. That’s what we should be focusing on when we read books like that. What can it teach our society’s children?
Don’t like a book with homosexual themes? Don’t read it. But, you should let your kid read it. I promise you, it won’t turn them gay. Because that’s impossible. They either are or they aren’t. What it will do is teach them tolerance and acceptance. As human beings, it’s our nature to disagree with certain things – even to judge certain behavior. But, it’s also our responsibility to take care of each other. Just because we disagree with someone’s lifestyle does not give us the authority to bring them down because of it. Telling kids they can’t read books on certain subjects is telling them that those subjects are not okay. Teaching kids that it’s not okay for someone to be gay only perpetuates the horrible cycle we’ve fallen into of intolerance.
Sheltering kids doesn’t help. Educating them does. We’re failing the next generation and we have to stop it.
Thanks for reading! I hope you’ll tune in for the next one!
-Spencer PHilly