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“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”  “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”  “Catcher in the Rye.”  The Dictionary.  “The Lord of the Flies.“ The Harry Potter Series.  “Bridge to Terabithia.”  “Call of the Wild.”  “James and the Giant Peach.”  “A Light in the Attic” by Shel Shilverstein.  “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” The Bible. 

I hope that you recognize a few of these book titles.  Do you know what they all have in common?  Most of them are considered literary classics but I am not thinking of that connection.  Would you be surprised to know that all of these books often end up on lists of the most commonly banned books?!

It’s true.  These books can be found in every school, library, home, and church and are considered to contain inappropriate material by some. 

The process of banning a book I am sure has always begun with the best of intentions – to protect someone, most often children, from difficult ideas and information.  Perhaps the book in question had offensive language, mature themes, or sexual content.  Maybe it contained ideas that someone thought were too radical or challenging to mainstream thinking. 

But the fact of the matter is that someone else was making a decision for you and me without consulting us first!  And, that decision was ultimately based on some level of fear that someone was experiencing.

In my classroom this fall I introduced a relatively new book series to my students.  It is a trilogy that falls into the Dystopian fiction genre.  Dystopian fiction books are generally based on the notion that a government in repressing and controlling its people and that there is little or no hope in society.  (Think George Orwell’s  “1984”, or the Harrison Ford movie, “Blade Runner”.)

I had read the first book in the series and was captivated by the story line with the sharp descriptive language.  I shared my enthusiasm with the older students and mentioned that the book was coming out as a movie this March.  Immediately, all of the students, and I do mean all, were fighting for the book.

The book was being carried around and read throughout every day, both in and out of class.  I know this to be true because I ran into one of my students at an event outside of school and here she was reading the book in the midst of a crazy night of powderpuff volleyball action in a noisy gym – she couldn’t put the book down. 

I had students like Austin in the eighth grade, who could barely force himself to read the perennially popular fourth grade-level books about Encyclopedia Brown, glued to this new novel and read it all in a mere three days! 

Students were creating waiting lists on the classroom board to get in line for the next available copy.  The public library’s waiting list was also too long, so many went out and purchased the trilogy.  I had to impose a rule that one couldn’t discuss the book without announcing a “spoiler alert” so that students who hadn’t read it yet could get out of earshot.  This book went viral!  It was a literature teacher’s dream!

And then, like all precious things, it began to tarnish.  A few parents became worried about the book because they couldn’t figure out why the kids were so excited about it.  These adults began to research the book and based on the descriptions and reviews they read on parenting websites, were sure that the book was harmful to their children.

Two parents actually took the time to meet privately with me to discuss the book.  “What an opportunity this book is providing you and your child!” I beamed at the first mother.  “How often do teenagers and parents sit down and discuss something important like literature?” 

Well, this mother didn’t quite see it that way.  She felt that the story line was too violent and depressing for her daughter and she didn’t want her exposed to that at her age.  I understood and suggested that mom read the book first and perhaps discuss the book with her daughter if she chose to let her read it. 

The second parent came to me with the intention of asking, “What in the hell were you thinking by offering this book to our children?”  However, after we talked and I shared the list of banned books as found at the beginning of this article, she backed down.

She did keep saying how she was trying to protect her daughter.  I finally asked her how she was going to protect her daughter from everything she might ever come in contact with?   Wouldn’t it be better to equip her with information and a set of emotional and behavioral tools to deal with the challenges she is going to face in her lifetime rather than seal her in bubble wrap? 

Can a book really do all of that?  Probably not, but the book has created an opportunity – a chance to challenge one’s thinking, explore the cause for concern, have an intelligent discussion about it, and devise an action plan to problem solve.  What an experience to share with your child!

I know that there is a time and place for everything and that not all children should be able to read all books.  I just hope that those in our world who are so quick to ban books and other intellectual activities never get a strong foothold or the one day the Dystopian fiction novel I read just might not be so fictional.

Margaret Andersen is the mother of three teenagers and is a middle school teacher somewhere in the Midwest.  She is a regular ShareWIK.com columnist. For more Margaret Anderson articles, click here. 

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