Pearson Pipeline

What if you were told that you can’t read the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling because it displays too much violence and is therefore unsuitable to the age group?  What about Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series because it is sexually explicit and displays a specific religious viewpoint?  And the most ridiculous: What about dictionaries because they are not age appropriate?  All of these books and thousands more have been challenged (in other words, someone wants to ban them) or banned from schools, bookstores, and libraries since Banned Books Week started in 1982.  The reason for most of the challenges: too sexual or too violent, profanity, offensive portrayals of racial or religious group, and positive portrayals of homosexually.  No book is safe as challenges have happened to books from all kinds of genres, contemporary to classics, in every state, and every kind of community.  In the case of the dictionaries — Merriam Webster dictionaries were banned in California elementary schools in January 2010 because it defined oral sex, and district representatives felt “it’s just not age appropriate.”

Celebrate your freedom to read during Banned Books Week and throughout the year!  Check out the display at the Pearson Library to see what other books have been banned.  Look at the Huffington’s Post for their list of the 12 most surprising banned books, and stand up for your right to read whatever you’d like!

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