Every year the American Library Association celebrates banned book week. I had never heard of a book being banned until I was in college, and was quite surprised to hear that some of the books people attempted to ban were books I had already read (Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc).
I only remember my mother "banning" a book twice. Once, my younger siblings checked out a picture book from our local library that were full of illustrations containing unclothed children. Almost every page had at least one child without any pants on. I don't think there were any frontal drawings, but my three and four year old siblings were having monstrous giggle fits over the book. My Mom was outraged, and we returned the book the next day while she had expressed her views of how it was inappropriate to the librarian, and the librarian huffily explained that not everyone saw things Mom's way and they couldn't remove it from the shelves. Thereafter we had to present all books to Mom for a scan before it could be checked out.
The second ban came about in middle school. Sweet Valley High was all the rage, and when Mom realized I was reading one every other day (my classmate had the ENTIRE series and I was in an ACE school where I had way too much free time on my hands), she read two of them. We had a little talk about why they were inappropriate (the main characters displayed ungodly characteristics: bad-mouthing parents, slandering friends, jealousy, revenge, etc), and then I was told I needed to replace them with something else. So I read them at school for a little while, out of parental prying eyes, all the while hearing Mom's voice in my head saying "The Bible says..." every time a character did something that was not edifying or representative of the fruit of the Spirit.
In high school during AP class, we would tell our English teacher if there was an assigned novel we were uncomfortable reading (Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath...made it through 2 pages), and he willingly allowed us to read a different book from the list. So here's my conspiracy theory: all these "banned" books were banned by the publishers to boost book sales.
I mean, if I don't like a book, I'm not going to read it. If a student doesn't like a book, they're going to go out and buy the cliff notes and not read the book. In most cases, if a parent or a child truly has an issue with a book, most teachers would more than graciously allow the student to read 2 or 3 more permissible books in it's place. Many parents would simply read the book with the child and teach them through the process how to Biblically analyze, dissect, and debate what is wrong with its content. Everyone knows the way to make a teenager want to do something (or anyone for that matter) is to make it forbidden.
I never dreamed I would be one to submit to a conspiracy theory, but there you have it. It's all a scam.
I only remember my mother "banning" a book twice. Once, my younger siblings checked out a picture book from our local library that were full of illustrations containing unclothed children. Almost every page had at least one child without any pants on. I don't think there were any frontal drawings, but my three and four year old siblings were having monstrous giggle fits over the book. My Mom was outraged, and we returned the book the next day while she had expressed her views of how it was inappropriate to the librarian, and the librarian huffily explained that not everyone saw things Mom's way and they couldn't remove it from the shelves. Thereafter we had to present all books to Mom for a scan before it could be checked out.
The second ban came about in middle school. Sweet Valley High was all the rage, and when Mom realized I was reading one every other day (my classmate had the ENTIRE series and I was in an ACE school where I had way too much free time on my hands), she read two of them. We had a little talk about why they were inappropriate (the main characters displayed ungodly characteristics: bad-mouthing parents, slandering friends, jealousy, revenge, etc), and then I was told I needed to replace them with something else. So I read them at school for a little while, out of parental prying eyes, all the while hearing Mom's voice in my head saying "The Bible says..." every time a character did something that was not edifying or representative of the fruit of the Spirit.
In high school during AP class, we would tell our English teacher if there was an assigned novel we were uncomfortable reading (Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath...made it through 2 pages), and he willingly allowed us to read a different book from the list. So here's my conspiracy theory: all these "banned" books were banned by the publishers to boost book sales.
I mean, if I don't like a book, I'm not going to read it. If a student doesn't like a book, they're going to go out and buy the cliff notes and not read the book. In most cases, if a parent or a child truly has an issue with a book, most teachers would more than graciously allow the student to read 2 or 3 more permissible books in it's place. Many parents would simply read the book with the child and teach them through the process how to Biblically analyze, dissect, and debate what is wrong with its content. Everyone knows the way to make a teenager want to do something (or anyone for that matter) is to make it forbidden.
I never dreamed I would be one to submit to a conspiracy theory, but there you have it. It's all a scam.
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