Banning Books Doesn't "Protect" Kids - It Encourages Them to Read Them! - Merit Educational Consultants
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Banning Books Doesn’t “Protect” Kids – It Encourages Them to Read Them!

Why do people want to ban books?

In an era of instantaneous fact, images and videos, it seems odd that some people still ban books today.  A teen can flip on the TV and watch extreme violence and hear obscene profanity during prime time.  In a few keystrokes, they can watch porn and they can explore extreme points of view about any religion, the LGBTQ community, and people of color.  So why ban books that contain contents that are much more tame than you could find on the internet? Hmm.  Because it’s old school.

Time Magazine just published a comparison between 10 most banned books in 2001 and 2015. Many of these books were banned at times when religious groups were fueling propaganda with political fear-mongering in the news.  The main difference between the 2 time periods is that in 2001, books were banned because of sexual content, strong language, and drugs.  In 2015, the focus was more on sexual orientation (transgender, homosexuality) and religion (atheism, Islam).

One thing for sure: If you ban a book from the public, you’re going to increase interest in reading it.  Banning books is great for book sales. Here is the American Library Association’s list of most-challenged books of 2001 and 2015.

Most-challenged books of 2001:

  1. Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling
    Reasons: anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, violence
  2. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
    Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group, violence
  3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
  4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
    Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit
  5. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene
    Reasons: offensive language, racism, sexually explicit
  6. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
    Reasons: offensive language, unsuited to age group
  7. Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  8. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
    Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit
  9. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
    Reason: offensive language
  10. Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
    Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Most-challenged books of 2015:

  1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
    Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
  2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
  3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
    Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
  4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
    Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
  5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
    Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
  6. The Holy Bible
    Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
  7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
    Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
  8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
    Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
  9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
    Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
  10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
    Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).

Read the Times Magazine story here.