There is a concern that books are dangerous and can open children up to things their parents disapprove of. Therefore, someone who is not their parent, knows best. The actual parents actually get very little say in keeping a book in the library. The bans are not always open to debate among the parents. And it is usually a majority vote of the board, not the parents, who decide about banning books. The attempts to ban or restrict books jumped in two years from 156 to 1,269 (ALA, 2023). Over 90% of the book challenges were part of a multiple-book challenge (ALA).

From the American Library Association, https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2023/03/record-book-bans-2022

Books can provide a historical accounting (Howard 2023). They allow students who are not in a politically correct standard to see themselves, their families, and their friends. Students not only read to find themselves, but also to see how others overcome obstacles (Howard).

My high school students created a banned book display with the slogan “Banned Books Reflect Real Life“. While LGBTQ+ books are most often banned, we mostly avoided those in the display to show other books that face banning. On one side is the publisher’s description. On the other is a selection of reasons it was challenged. For the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon, we added Mr. Haddon’s response to banning books.

According to Mr. Howard, “[book bannings] threatens the powerful American tradition of sharing the stories of a diverse and changing America.” I believe that everyone deserves the right to choose their reading material and that parents can restrict their own children without fanfare.  Restricting for all is dangerous to an open society.

Works Cited

American Library Association (ALA). “American Library Association Reports Record Number of Demands to Censor Library Books and Materials in 2022.” News and Press Center, 22 Mar. 2023, http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2023/03/record-book-bans-2022.

Howard, Tyrone C. “Whose Life Experiences Are Being Disappeared by Book Banning?” Education Week, 24 July 2023, http://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-whose-life-experiences-are-being-disappeared-by-book-banning/2023/07. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.