Saturday, November 9, 2013

Banned Books Letter

Dear Ms.Berner,

As many parents have been asking you to remove books, you seem to be considering the banning of certain books in the 6th grade libraries.  Although they may seem to be younger, these books are an important part of their education. By reading YA books, 6th graders start to be aware of tragic issues that they need to know about.  Also, you never know what’s happening in someone’s life, a YA book could really help him or her through something.  “Censorship is the enemy of truth.  Even more then a lie.  A lie can be exposed, censorship can prevent us from knowing the difference.” (Bill Moyers)For all of these reasons, no books should be banned from the 6th grade classrooms, because these books could be helping some students and in actuality you can’t protect them.
             Many children start dealing with heavy subject in their lives at young ages.  So by the time they’re in middle school, they turn to YA books and reading the endings gives them hope.  “There are millions of teens who read because they are sad and lonely and enraged.  They read because they live in often-terrible worlds.  They read because they believe… that books- especially the dark and dangerous ones- will save them.” (Why The Best Kids Books Are Written In Blood).   Reading young adult books can shelter kids in vulnerable positions.  You never know what’s happening in someone’s life, including the 6th graders in MS51.   If you can’t believe me when I say young adult fiction can help these students, Ellen Hopkins, among many other young adult authors, says that she has met thousands of fans saying how her books saved her.  “She [a girl Hopkins met] started getting high in middle school, mostly as a way to deal with her alcoholic mothers absence… But one day, she found my book.  She saw herself in those pages, and suddenly knew she didn’t want to be there… Today she’s been sober two years, is graduation high school… this wasn’t a rare encounter.”  (Banned Books Week 2010: Anti Censorship Manifesto).  Without these YA books in her class libraries, who knows where she and so many others would be.  In young adult fiction, yes-dark subjects are brought up, but at the end there is always a happy ending where the person struggling survives.  So when the students are reading about someone in the same situation as them who ends up all right, they are filled with the thought that there will be a brighter time.
The parents who are demanding books to be banned think they’re doing it to protect the young middle school students.  But really, there’s nothing to protect them of.  As stated in, ‘Sick-Lit’? Evidently Young Adult Fiction is too complex For the Daily Mail, “Illness, depression, sexuality- these are all issues that teens are going to bump up against in their lives, whether directly or at one remove, through family members, friends or representations in other media such as TV, films, and the internet.”  I think that perfectly describes how in practice, taking away these helpful books really won’t protect anyone.  In most cases, the children in 51 (and most middle schools) either already know about these issues through media, or have experienced them first hand.  Once again there are many people who say how silly it is, from things that have happened to them.  “They wanted to protect me from sex when I had already been raped.  They wanted to protect me from evil though a future serial killer had already abused me… they aren’t trying to protect the poor from poverty.  Or victims from rapists.  No, they are simply to protect their privileged notions, of what literature is and should be.  They are trying to protect privileged children.  Or the seemingly privileged.” (Why The Best Kids Books Are Written In Blood).  Kids everywhere (including this school) are abused.  Whether it be physically, sexually, verbally, it all hurts.  Now when these children say that YA books help them, and for someone to want to take that away isn’t right.  In the United States alone, everyday around 4 to 7 children die from child abuse.  Many terrible things happen all the time and these issues are taught in YA books.  So by “protecting” them (which isn’t really helpful in the first place) you are also creating ignorance on important subjects-which is the opposite of education.
Meghan Cox Gurdon makes a lot of claims against young adult fiction in her article Darkness Too Visible.  One being that everything in YA section was incredibly dark.  To this I agree with Maureen Johnson who said, “the idea that ‘darkness’ doesn’t belong in stories makes me wonder if the author of this article [Gurdon] has ever read any Poe, Dickens, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Tolstoy… or even the bible.” (Yes, Teen Fiction Can Be Dark- But it Shows Teenagers They Aren’t Alone).  The authors here are some of the most famous, that have written the most beautiful pieces of literature ever made.  And all of those books are full of rape, murder and some of the darkest and chilling moments written.  Saying young adult books should be disregarded because they are dark, is an ignorant point.  Another thing that Gurdon said is that these young adult books should be banned in big measures, not just for a couple students, but also in entire states.  That is a ridiculous way to think.  For a parent not to want their child to read a book, is completely fine; they are entitled to choose what they think is best for their own children.  But they have no right to decide what is good or bad for other people.  It’s selfish and unethical.  Why would it be up to one or two people to tell others exactly what they aren’t able to do?  If people let others control their books, a smaller issue like this one could turn into bigger issues.  Then we would all be under a type of dictatorship.  It may seem far-fetched and exaggerated, but so are Meghan Cox Gurdon’s accusations.
To sum up, I feel that there are many valid points as to why you shouldn’t consider banning books.  If a parent is uncomfortable with a book then all they have to do should be not to allow their son or daughter to read it.  Out of the 1,000 plus students in 51, a handful of parents shouldn’t have the power to restrict powerful books.  The fact that the books they want to ban are the same that have literally saved lives should be enough.  Not only that, but young adult books are educational and addresses important life topics.  Everyone should have the option to read what they want; even the 6th graders for project R.E.A.L.  “Believe nothing no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense.” (Buddha).  


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