Page Turners or Page Burners?

Banning books has been a discussion for years. We deem that certain books have too much offensive language, are too explicit or are too depressing. There are over 1,000 books banned in the US for all of these reasons and more.

I do not think we should be banning books for any of these reasons. Banning things does not stop the production of the item most of the time and if someone wants to read one of these books they can simply get it from a place it is not banned.

The reasons these books are banned are usually logical and it can be for any reason. Book bans vary by state and I think we are very lucky to be in California were most of the books are not banned and even used in high school classes.

Banning books does not solve the problem behind the books. They could be slightly more censored or sold based on the age of the customer or simply more warnings in the start of the book so the reader knows what they are getting into.

One of the books bans I found to be the most shocking when I first learned about book bans was the Harry Potter series. This book was banned for religious reasons. While religious reasons are a great reason to not read the book or not be told to read, it should still be an accessible book series. Just because a group of people does not agree with something does not mean it should be banned.

In the article “What You Need to Know About the Book Bans Sweeping the U.S.” by Morgan Gilbard, one of his main points was “today’s most banned books address issues related to race, gender identity and sexuality.” This is one of the reasons discussion about banned books is so important. The books written about these topics can really help and impact students facing struggles around these topics.

When I was doing my research I learned that at least 15 books I read throughout junior high and high school have been banned in different places in the US. They have all been banned for different reasons but these books being a part of my curriculum really helped me learn and I found a lot of them very interesting. I can not imagine going through high school without most of these books as they also helped me grow up.

While books can cause a lot of problems, it seems that banning them is not the solution. While it can be the easiest “solution” there are different ways we could filter what people are reading in school and in different states.