August 04, 2011

QUESTION OF THE DAY


So on Saturday's Book News post, I told you all about a school in Missouri that banned two Y.A. books, claiming that the books were not "age-appropriate." While it enraged a lot of you, it is also not something new.
Here are other books that have been banned in schools:

~ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (for using the "n" word too many times)
~ The Catcher in the Rye (for too much cursing, prostitution and depression)
~ To Kill a Mockingbird (for profanity and racial slurs)
~ The Lord of the Flies (for excessive violence)
~ Harry Potter (for fear of witchcraft and violence)


So how do we feel about this? To play devil's advocate, I wouldn't let my children watch television with excessive violence in it by blocking the TV channel. Aren't the schools simply blocking the "channel", so to speak? Are they actually doing the parents a favor by banning these books?


LET ME KNOW!!!!

8 comments:

  1. No. I think regardless if these children want to read these "banned" books. They will. There's internet to order them or libraries. Whatever the case is, they will get their hands on them if they really want to read them. However I feel that they're only doing what they think is best for the kids. So one can't be 100% upset with it.

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  2. I'm a strong advocate for parent's making the decision for their children, not the school's on what their kids should be reading. Parent's are the ones that know what's best for their kids. I understand schools are only doing what they seem as fit for their students, but they can't possible know what it is or wrong for each child to read.

    I personally feel they need to have a variety of books available for all their students. If a parent doesn't want their kid reading the book, than that's fine, there's a vast assortment of books in the library for them to choose from. This list of banned books is amazing to me! I read many of the books listed above in middle grade and high school, and I'd let me kids when they hit the right age. The book that's shocked me the most on the chopping block was Winnie The Pooh!

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  3. This "Banned" book list is ridiculous! They banned "The Diary of Anne Frank". Like really? What's wrong with that book? They banned authors like Judy Blume, V.C. Andrews, Jodi Picoult, Stephanie Meyers, Elizabeth Scott! I love Elizabeth Scott! Who decides what book goes on this list? A moron? Judy Blume books are banned. I grew up on those. And I turned out fine. I'm a avid reader and a blogger. The horror that Judy Blume inflicted on me! This is just insane.

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  4. I still think that there is nothing in books that kids don't learn in school or from their friends. I think some people are naive to think that their children aren't aware of drugs, sex, violence, etc.

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  5. I can't stand banned books. I think it's ridiculous. Anne Frank and Huck Finn are historically accurate. Are we going to stop teaching history too? I mean seriously, kids don't need to learn about the Holocaust now? I read both The Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird in middle school in a Christian school for goodness sakes!

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  6. The one that really gets me is Harry Potter. The only reason why a Harry Potter book would be band is a religious one. There are crazy fundamentalists that believe the witchcraft in HP could make a kid want to be a satanist. Church and state are separated for a reason.

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  7. This is ridiculous! I knew there were some issues with Harry Potter since witchcraft, but I wasn't aware of the others...I haven't read the first two, but as a teen I am outraged that both The Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird are banned in some schools!
    However, the main reason I'm upset it's because the schools have limited the children, us, from choosing what we want to read. But either way, we will read these books even if they're banned in schools, which they shouldn't since now we would have one less resource to read our favorite books... We would find a way, either libraries or online.

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  8. It's not up to librarians to decide what kids should and should not read. It's up to the parents. As a parent I'd be furious, if the librarian told my child he could not read Harry Potter. And as a librarian, it's not my responsibility to censor a child's reading.

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