Banned Book Week

Banned Book Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. It is held in the last week of September and was started in 1982. Banned Book Week gives hundreds of libraries and bookstores the opportunity to draw national attention to books that are often challenged or removed from shelves. This event is held by the American Library Association and many school libraries, bookstores, and public libraries participate in the event every year to stress the problem of censorship. Some libraries like to set up a display of some of the banned books they are featuring for that week, some like to hold open reading sessions, multiple libraries just have posters explaining Banned Book Week, and others may go with all three of these ideas. In my opinion Banned Book Week is a very cool thing because that is where I find a lot of books I read. For example, about four years ago I found a book called Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn on a shelf labeled Banned Books, so I was immediatly interested due to the fact that it was something I should not read. Breathing Underwater was challenged due to language and violence. To this day Breathing Underwater is on my top five favorite book list! Therefore, I believe being a banned or challenged book can be a good thing. So next time you see that display at a library or bookstore stop and take the time to scan it. If your hometown library does not have display for Banned Book Week just ask someone to help you find a frequently challenged book and you may be suprised what you find.

Books vs. Televison

Parents, would you rather have your child reading a book that talks about their bodies and sexual desire or have it shown to them on tv everyday? I bring about this question due to a blog I recently read on the banning of The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition. This blog brings up the point that basically you can never get rid of all the "bad influences" in your childs life, so would you rather them image it the way they would or have a grown up or "more experinced" person show them what it is on tv? As a child I personally knew what sex was but did not know details enough to want to do it as a young kid. I also knew what bad words were and what drugs were but reading about them in books did not make me want to go out and say or do those things. In my opinion books are a lot safer for kids to be exposed to then the stuff that gets put on tv these days. Another reason books can be better is that they are easier to control. With books the parent has to buy it or check that book out for a young child or a librarian has to check it out to them, as for tv you never really truely know what may pop up on that show you are watching or what commercials may come up in between episodes of Scooby-Doo. So what is your opinion, are books safer or is television safer to expose kids too? I would love the feed back from anyone, including any kids who have thoughts on the topic, so leave me questions or statements!!!

Reasons

Why are some books challenged or banned? The American Library Association recieved 3,736 challenges between the year 2001 and 2008. The top five reasons going to "sexually explicit", "offensive language", "unsuited to age group", "violence", and "homosexuality". Other reasons included "anit-family" and "religious viewpoint". The majority of these challenges came from parents while others came from patrons and administrators. One thing I found very interesting is that books are challenged more for "sexual content" and "offensive language" than for topics like abortion or suicide. What do you think is worse to exspose a child/teen to suicide, homosexuality, different religions, sexual content, or offensive language? I asked three different people with three different up brings how they would place these topics from 1=worse to 5=being ok. Mrs. Smith a 4th grade teacher in this area said that number one would be suicide, followed by sexual content at number two, homosexuality at three, offensive language at forth, and different religions coming in at the best to expose a child or teen to, out of the list above. Next, I asked an electrician. He gave the following list 1)sexual content, 2)homosexuality, 3)suicide, 4)offensive language, and 5)different religions. I also asked a fellow high school student, Ms. Bailey is a junior in high school and said suicide would be worst followed by sexual content, homosexuality, offensive language, and different religions. Offensive language is the second most challenged reason for books but with my little survey all three people with different age, sex, up bringing, thoughts, etc. thought that language is not the biggest thing people should be worrying about with books. Think about how you would answer that question as a student, a teacher, or a parent. Would your answer change if it was your child reading it? Would it make a difference if it was going with what you think is right or wrong? Or would none of this matter? I would really like to know what you think, so please don't be afriad to say what you think!