Dear Ms.Berner,

John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” Through reading, people gain knowledge about certain topics and discover what they are interested in and intrigued by. By banning books, the amount of knowledge that can be gained and the variety of topics are both limited. Books should not be banned because this stops teens from exploring parts of themselves, from tackling problems and hardships in their imaginations, and from thinking about issues that are uncomfortable.

Limitation. Students need exposure to different topics to be aware of what happens in different places around the world. Winnie-the-Pooh is a classic childrens’ book and according to buzzfeed, “ Several institutions in Turkey and the UK have banned the book, claiming that the character of Piglet is offensive to Muslims. Other institutions claim that the book revolves around Nazism.” This quote shows how the institutions jumped to conclusions about who the characters portrayed. Also, this is a book for much younger kids who would not know whether these characters were portraying Nazis or not. Winnie-the-Pooh is a joyful book that captivates many young children. Younger kids start off by learning the basics and exploring happy topics. As kids grow up, dealing with real world problems gets easier and they start to think deeper about the meanings. According to the ALA parents in Savannah, GA complained about the book The Catcher in the Rye being read and taught in an AP English class because it contained “sex, violence, and profanity”. All of these things happen around the world everyday, and stopping these teens from reading about them is limiting their knowledge of events that they may one day encounter. Also, many books containing these topics are commonly banned in high schools where many teens start to engage in some of these instances and they need to be educated about them. I recently read SOLD by Patricia McCormick which is about a girl who leaves her home in the Nepalese mountains to provide for her family and ends up in a brothel. This book and many books like it have been banned and challenged all around the world. Before reading this book, I was aware that many young girls were in very similar situations, but was unaware of why this sort of situation happened and what people are doing to help those caught in human trafficking. To look up information like this on the internet can be very scary and uncomfortable, and reading the story took me through a journey that so many girls take, but didn’t scare me. Limiting books doesn’t just take a good book away from students, it takes away the important knowledge gained from the book.

Problems. Issues. Hardships. These are things that everyone faces but the actual issues or hardships or problems are different around the world. A mother from Riverside, California felt that The Fault in Our Stars had a “morbid plot, crude language, and sexual content” which were inappropriate for children to be reading. Millions of people around the globe have cancer and many die from it. This book tells a very realistic story of two teenagers who both have cancer and fall in love. The hardship that Hazel, Augustus, and their families face is one that millions of people around the world go through, and by saying the book has a morbid plot is like saying that millions of people do morbid things and have a morbid life. An article from Banned Books Awareness about the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher states, “The majority of students are the ones who look the other way, the ones who laugh at someone else’s expense because it’s “me or them” in the popularity game of high school social life, and feel that they can take advantage of someone’s body, emotion, or mentality because it’s okay as long as they feel as if no one “really” gets hurt.” Even with all of the organizations trying to stop bullying, it still occurs. Many kids do kill themselves due to this hurt and this book portrays reasons why someone would reach that breaking point. It is important to be mindful of the ways your actions affect others. Suicide and bullying are two major issues that happen around the world everyday. Many authors focus their books around topics such as death, bullying, and sickness to educate readers, so why should the strongest ones be banned? Perhaps they are too strong and realistic.

Some may argue that many books emphasize topics that are problematic for young people. Many parents complain to libraries and school boards about how these children should not be exposed to such topics and books should be banned. Superintendent Ann Riebock stated, “The goal would be to find some acceptable process by which parents feel comfortable with their voice in making decisions and teachers feel comfortable that students have access to a wide variety of print”. This statement shows how many parents want a say in what their kids are exposed to, however kids are then not learning about the subjects exposed in the book. When parents have a say in what their kids can and cannot read, they are generally making that decision based on how comfortable they are with the book. They are also not letting their children have a say in what they want to be learning about and encountering. Many schools ban books because they don’t think that they students are old enough to handle the topics expressed by the story. This makes perfect sense because no one would want a third grader reading about human trafficking, but people take it too far and ban students from reading books about things that are very relevant to their everyday lives. Although some books are reasonable to ban, many contain information should be commonly known.

Banning books affects the ways in which people, especially teens, gather information. Different groups such as parents, libraries and school boards ban books due to language, sexual content, and many other things that humans encounter in their day to day lives. In books, characters go through situations that can help others through difficult times in their lives and educate them about how to help others and who in the world needs help. Before banning a book it is important to think about how the information presented in the book could be of use to people. Also, teens should be able to vouch for themselves and decide what they want to know. Students shouldn’t have to read a book if they are uncomfortable with it, but know onw should be able to decide that for them.

Emmeline Vickers Batzdorf, 802