Perhaps I exaggerate.
My childhood was happy, pretty much exclusively. I don't remember many bad times, and I don't remember ever feeling like I just needed to escape. Books weren't that for me as a child. And though my adolescence was a little rocky, it wasn't rocky in a physically painful way, and it wasn't even that emotionally harmful; I'm fine today and only remember feeling sort of awkward. And of course, I was made miserable by a family move in 7th grade. Now, I look back at that move with only gratefulness, because I know my parents did it so that I would go to a better high school. And it did eventually end up being really good for me. My point is, I don't think I had much reason for books to save me. There's not much to save me from, in my life. Nonetheless, I feel as if reading opened me up to much that I didn't know it was opening me up to. I think reading has been the greatest gift in my life, and every day I'm grateful for it. I've always been a big reader; I've always been allowed to read whatever I wanted to. I like to think that my mom and dad wouldn't have stopped me from reading some of the more controversial stuff that's out now; the books that are frank about transgender (Luna) or homosexuality (Julie Ann Peters books, David Leviathan's books, among many, many, many). Those books weren't necessarily around when I was reading young adult books (more than 15 years ago; I moved on to adult books pretty fast.), but I think I have good reason to believe that they would have let me read whatever, because no one made a peep when I moved very early on into romance novels. Regardless, I'm also very lucky in that my parents allowed me to experience a bigger world than I could possibly be in by letting me read whatever.
And that's why, when I read about books being banned from libraries and schools, I get nervous, and scared. There are a lot of kids out there trapped in houses where things aren't so open. There are a lot of kids that want nothing more than to escape their reality, and what better way than books? I'm don't think libraries should be complicit in something that ultimately harms children, regardless of the beliefs of that child's family. I can understand that there are parents that will censor their children's reading material--except that it's fairly easy to read in school libraries and public libraries when no one is watching. Which of course is why these books are being challenged, because parents know that when their child is away from them for seven hours a day, they can't control what s/he reads. But I don't believe that it's a library's responsibility to parent; if a parent doesn't want their child reading something, the radical solution is to lock them in the house and never let them out. That's called homeschooling. Libraries have a duty to provide all materials to everyone, regardless of content, age, etc. I've banged on and on about this before, but with Banned Books Week 2007 coming up, it's important to remember what we're about. We're about access and information, and banning books doesn't further either of those two goals.
It's extremely demoralizing to read about libraries and school libraries complying with the control freaks of the world that want us all to be the same, and to think the same, and to bow down before their version of what is right and wrong. We should all be standing up for and demanding the freedom to read, regardless of our own personal belief systems. This year, maybe you've got some reading time on your hands. I encourage you to read at least one of the most banned books from 1990-2000. I know I've read some of them, and I'm sure some of you have too. But this year, some time between Sept 29 and Oct 6, I'll be reading one that I haven't read before, and I promise to do an old-school book report on it here. If you've got a blog, maybe you'd do the same. Let's take a stand on this. Banning books is censorship, pure and simple, and there's no place for that in libraries.
AMEN, SISTER!
Posted by: Mavis | August 15, 2007 at 01:22 PM