List of Top Ten Banned Books was Released

Well, they're at it again. I saw on MSN a video about the Top Ten Banned Books. Some of theses are worldwide. Now, as a author, of course I don't agree with book banning as books are expressions of free speech; at least in the U.S. they are. Some of them, I agree should not be in elementary school. If little Johnny or Jill has a classmate with a same-sex couple as parents, then it should be discussed within the family, not out of a school book. If the parents want to get the book to discuss it with their child, then that is their prerogative as parents. But, by middle school, I'm sorry, they have already been exposed to it, just make sure the books aren't explicit in nature- as in adult level.

Now, I don't get the whole Winnie the Pooh thing.It is banned in some of the  U.S schools and in several countries because the animals talk. Several books, in fact were banned for that reason alone. I wonder if anyone has banned Beatrix Potter's books (Peter Rabbit). Oh, my goodness! What child hasn't pretended their pet or even stuffed toy or doll talks to them? It can be a way of working something out that they really don't need to go to an actual speaking person for, or help them work out what they are going to say to an actual speaking person as way of an explanation. Have you ever practiced a speech in a mirror? Some of the books are cited as being racist or Marxist. Huh? While the repetition of Green Eggs and Ham is certainly annoying to us adults, children love it, and it teaches them to read by rote; the old-fashion method of teaching words to children, like flash cards. It certainly isn't political and I don't thing Dr. Seuss was trying to politicize our youth by writing his children's stories. He might have been trying an experiment on just how many times an adult would indulge their children by reading them repeatedly, but probably not that either.

I remember when I was in the seventh grade a good many of the girls had discovered 'trashy' romance novels, what the industry called 'bodice rippers'. The girls in class would get them at the local public library because they were not available at the middle school, which they rightly weren't. One they had going around and discussed was Sweet Savage Love. It was an early version of a book group that now is applauded. However, the adult nature of the book and those of that genre were strictly forbidden at school. Not because they portrayed males violently overtaking females for sex and the women ultimately deciding it was okay, which in reality is actually rape and not okay, but because it had sex in the first place, and usually among unmarried people. Instead of realizing the girls were curious more than anything else, as girls of that age are, and having a discussion about the right and wrong, they just told them they were 'dirty books' and not allowed at school. They could have discussed it at a PTA meeting, but back then, in the early 1970s, it probably would have gotten the same reaction from the parents in the rural, small town, Bible Belt South. As dog-eared as those books were, the kids weren't the only ones reading them and they weren't fooling anyone but themselves if they thought the kids thought so.

Another title that is on the list is of course Harry Potter books- all of them. While I understand that religious leaders are against the witchcraft and otherworldly aspects, they are ostriches if they think kids have never heard of it. Also they should understand that just like the television shows kids watch (that if they think about it are fantasy since they do not portray their actual lives), the books are fantasy and most kids know this and understand this. If they don't, then they probably are not yet old enough to read them or have them read to them in the first place, and they shouldn't have seen the movies either. I know plenty of adults who just love the series.

People are completely overlooking that these books inspire the imagination of kids and, perhaps most importantly, get them to read, and read some really long books. There is no downside to that. Would they rather their kids read books at more than a Dick and Jane level (assuming they are old enough) and discuss them with their peers (and perhaps an adult or two), or go get drunk or high, or get involved in some other elicit activities somewhere? Think about it.