Book Banning is all around us. Book Banning is when a figure of authority takes measures to prevent a book or its contents from being read. This has been happening for many years and probably won’t stop anytime soon, but people are more open to challenging banns. One thing I never really understood was why some popular fictional children and Young Adult books are banned. Children’s literature has been written in every country, civilization and time period. It teaches history, promotes understanding of different of other cultures and also tends to reflect the beliefs of the authors . It is still challenged and banned though. Typically, children’s fiction is banned is because people complain that it isn’t age appropriate which can be true in some cases. The intended age level for a book doesn’t guarantee that someone won’t censor it. The emphasis there is on YA and children’s books, but attempts have been made to restrict access for adults as well.
Children learn to love reading through exposure during their youth, and children from first to sixth grade find a love for reading with fairytale literature in general. They are the old stories in every culture that are retold throughout generations. In fairytales, there is magic and mystery along with important life lessons. Fairytales and Folktales are important because they are what help children differentiate between right and wrong. Fairytales encompass objects of trickery, mastery, power and justice as well as engages senses of moral character throughout most kids. The brothers Grimm make some of the world most popular fairytales. They were published in the early1800’s and still are very popular. The early stories, despite being cruel and violent, taught important lessons to children. People in the 19th century however didn’t see it that way. Educators, parents, and religious figures deplored the Grimms’ collection for being barbaric and uncivilized. The punishments for the stories villains were too gruesome for children.
Even though his books were anything but gruesome, Dr Seuss’s books were also challenged. Dr. Seuss’s books are known for being short, colorful picture books with imaginative characters and trisyllabic meter rhymes. However, in each book, there is a lesson. There are inherent morals in every story, but Dr. Seuss wrote about real life social and political issues. How the Grinch stole Christmas is about the materialism in Christmas, Yertle the Turtle is about Hitler and his authorization, and The Sneetches are about racial equity. Some of the lessons in the books were offensive to some people. For example, his book, The Lorax, is about the poor care of the earth. The book was popularly challenged in areas where the timber industry was common.
Book banning is very There are parent websites such as PABBIS (Parents Against Banned Books In Schools), which help parents and community members to ban books in their own community, as well as others.Of course there are two sides of each coin. Thankfully, not everyone just stands around when books are banned. When popular books are banned in some places, people do protest. One of the largest examples of this is the Harry Potter series. When the Harry Potter series was published and became popular worldwide, several people tried to ban it. They argued that the books promote witchcraft because they are viewed in a positive light. The other arguments are that the books set bad examples for kids and are to dark for children. When that happened, several organizations joined together to create Muggles for Harry Potter, which is now kid SPEAK, which is an organization that focuses on being a voice for kids fighting any kind of censorship.