A Couple Specific Targeted Books

There are many, many books in this world that are challenged often but there are many that are challenged way more than others. Two of those books are "Romeo and Juliet", "To Kill A Mockingbird", and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". All three of these books are often read in high schools. In my school we read these books to understand why they are so controversial and to discuss our opinions on the books.

(Possible spoiler approaching!)


Romeo and Juliet
This book is challenged often due to the teenage rebellion, teenage suicide, and violence. The story line is something everyone can relate to in some way. Whether it be your parents hate your boyfriend/girlfriend because of there background or you are in the position where someone you truly loved has passed and you need to find the strength to live. Romeo and Juliet's families are rivals and want nothing to do with each other but Romeo and Juliet do not see that hatred toward each other. When their parents find out they force the kids to stop seeing each other, however Romeo and Juliet can not stand to be apart so they sneak around. In the end the teens become so desperate to not have someone controlling their lives that one of them, I will not say who so I will call them Person A, fakes their own death without telling Person B. This plan back fires, Person B gets word of Person A's death and believes it is real. Person B then proceeds to take his/her own life...for real! Person A then takes his/her life and the families are all heart broken, yet blaming each other for what happened. This story isn't just about killing yourself over something, in my opinion this book shows that when you truly love someone nothing can stop you from being with that person but death is never the answer, after Romeo and Juliet killed themselves nothing changed.
For me I can see why parents often challenge this book but I do not believe it should be removed from shelves because when this book is read in a classroom you go beneath the surface and see different means behind everything and there are a lot of lessons to be learned from this story.

To Kill A Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is challenged for reasons such as offensive or harsh language, racism, and for use of the word nigger. This book was published in the 1960s when a lot of racial slur was still used and not found quite as offensive as it is today. The story line takes place in the 1930s in Alabama. Two young kids and their father live in Maycomb, Alabama and have a black housekeeper. Scout, the young girl, her brother Jem, and their new friend Dill go on little adventures over the summer; Dill soon becomes very interested the the Radley house on the corner. This book tells the story of Scout's life during the Great Depression. One adventure the kids take is to the court house where Scouts father is the lawyer for a black man who is being charged with rape of a white woman. This case is very interesting to Scout because her father believes this man did not do anything wrong. *SPOILER ALERT* In the end Tom, the black man, is convicted and sent to jail. While trying to escape from jail Tom is shot and killed. Later on Jem and Scout are on their way home from a school thing and are jumped by the town drunk, who is also the young women's father from the court house. The kids are soon rescued by Boo Radley, but in the morning the sheriff finds the town drunk dead. I believe book is mostly banned because it shows that even back then white people would stand up for a black man and visa verse!


My Outlook on Things!
Books like this should not be something people complain about, they are books that tell how it was back in those days. Personally I have read both of these books and they were both very eye opening to me. Romeo and Juliet showed me how easy I have it for example even if my parents don't like a guy I hate they don't say anything because they know it is my choice. To kill a Mockingbird showed me that a lot of things that happened in this book still kinda happen today, for example when is comes down to it in the justice system nothing is really based just on evidence it comes down to who can present their side better and more convincingly. As for the language in these books, I don't think it's anything to make a big deal out of it. Harsh language such as "nigger", "bitch", and "damn" are still used all the time if not more often now then it was when Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird were written. Books should never be taken off shelves due to telling it how it is!
Basically what I'm trying to say is no book should be taken off a shelve is someone in the world can find a way to learn something from it! Reading can help you learn so limiting what people can read is limiting there learning ability.

A change in the blog post.

Just changing it up for this week! This was a project for my college writing class on teen drinking and smoking. For this project we decided to find out why teens between the ages of 13 and 19 smoke and drink. Once we found out our information we decided to make an iMovie as our final product. With our final project done and looking back on the assignment and what our group learned, we found out that age matters, why one smokes or drinks varies, and who they do it with varies. We came to find out age matters because the younger you start the more likely you are to make that a habit. Reasons why teens smoke or drink varied from "just for fun" to "because my friends do" to even "because I'm bored" this to me is definitely a scary thing to be hearing from anyone! Teens also told us who they tend to smoke or drink with, some said just friends, others say anyone, and a hand full said by themselves. Over all this was a stressful but interesting topic to work with just because we had to involve so many more people to accomplish this final product.

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!