I have long been an advocate for reluctant readers. I’ve spoken at the Illinois Reading Council and the American Library Association on the subject. I believe that anything that makes a student want to read is a good book, no matter the subject matter. A fourteen year old who started A Banned Book Club at her school, said, “I love to read, so it’s kind of frustrating to see the bans, especially because a lot of adults are banning it, but they’re not asking teenagers our opinion on these books … It’s scary to know that all these people who might need these books for a reason, because maybe they’re just learning about themselves, and they need something to read, they don’t have access to that.”
Maybe some reluctant readers don’t read because the worlds in the books they are allowed are bland and unimaginable when compared to video games and TikTok. That’s the problem with censorship and removing a book like MAUS from a school library.
Parents and lawmakers claim they are only removing books from libraries to protect innocent children from feeling discomfort, guilt or any other form of psychological distress questionable content. Its an impossibly broad category, since anyone might be “distressed” about anything. Its also the same excuse used for over two hundred years. An article in the Atlantic noted that even back in the 1800s, books that were suppressed for being inappropriate for kids were often stories about cultures and life experiences different from those of the majority population. Most banned books explore issues of race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental illness, and disability.
(Although in 2012, the Captain Underpants books topped the list of most banned books because of language. I attended an American Library Association meeting and presentation where membefrs of the Office of Intellectual Freedom explained why the books were banned. Adults unnerved by reading the vocabulary in the books to their small children wanted to have them removed from libraries.)
Neither parents, authors, librarians nor teachers want to increase any child’s anxiety. I’m one of those people who elieve that knowledge is power. As an author, my goal is to empower young readers, to help them understand the world and to grow. To promote empathy for others. I promise I want readers to feel more knowledgeable after they read one of my stories, and never, ever ashamed. Books can provide the kind of power and life experience that some kids cannot get any other way. An opportunity to meet people of different backgrounds and cultures young readers often cannot get in real life.
Preventing children from reading a book like Maus won’t protect them from anything. On the contrary, it may rob them of ways to understand the world they live in. We don’t want kids to have to experience life in a concentration camp so they will grow up feeling what it’s like, we want them to grow up determined tht kind of thing willnot happen again because they have empathy and felt what it was like in a book. Like riding a rollar coaster, kids know their book is a safe space. They may have questions about the content, but they rest easy knowing it willnever place them in any real harm or dangr.
Studies of middle school classes found that students who got to debate controversial subjects were more likely to see themselves as “an active participant in civic affairs.” If a child comes home with a question about something theyread in a book, that does not mean they feel guilty. It means their curiosity has been awakened and they trust their parents to tell them more. That’s not a time to fail them and other students who may need to hear the message in that book. Censorship is an attempt to stifle someone’s individual thought. There’s a reason why America applauded the TV show All In The Family when Edith Bunker ignored her husband’s repeated command to “stifle.” It is wrong at any age.
Book banning says a lot more about the banner than about the book. Take Animal Farm for example. The book was banned in the UK during the second world war because of fears that its publication could anger Soviet allies. Animal Farm was banned in the USSR until the Soviet Union fell. Then the book was banned in Florida in 1981. Why? Because they felt the same book the communists hate, a book written by a man who spent his life fighting totalitarianism, was pro-communist. Someone was not thinking critically.
Classroom, school, and public libraries are meant to serve an entire community of students, not just the ones with the most prudish parents. Although students are not adults, they still have rights – and agency. A dialogue between parents, teachers and librarians is important, but if young people seek out information on a topics that interest them, they should access. Better still, they should be given guidance through classroom discussion, book club leaders, and parents. Instead of banning books, more people should get involved in helping kids process what they read. Making a book forbidden means kids will hide their reading material. It will never make them stop.