Another year, another Banned Books Week, and once again, I'm shocked when I peruse the titles that have been banned and/or challenged. Take a look at this list, from the American Library Association's website. Bet you've read many of these books, somewhere along the road to higher knowledge. Provocative prose is guaranteed to make you think. Maybe that's why it scares some folks.
I have to admit that the idea of banning books makes me smile. I can't help thinking about my mom and one of her favorites sayings, "Don't put peas up your nose." Because of course, if you tell a little kid not to put peas up his nose (or her nose-this blog believes in equal peas for all), what's the first thing that the kid is going to do?
Yeah, that's right. It's off to the doctor's office to extract peas from a nose. So, I kinda think the best way to get kids to read the best books is to tell them that the books have been BANNED.
Oh, my gosh. Those kids will be stampeding the libraries to get to those banned books. I'd love to see kids all over America reading this list of books.
But honestly, I'm happy to see kids, teens, adults, seniors, even alien life forms, reading any book. So, read a book, any book, and celebrate your freedom.
