I’m in total disbelief regarding the banning of books in this country. I just don’t get it.

I understand that children shouldn’t be allowed to read explicit materials. But banning books that have been used as teaching materials for as long as I can remember from school libraries is ridiculous! Why not consider the importance of what can be learned from a book? When I was a kid, I had to read books like Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and To Kill A Mockingbird. Those books have been banned in many school libraries. Such a shame. There’s much to be learned from such books which also teach kids to THINK.

Books are under attack in this country. Why are we allowing our legislators, and school boards to control what our children read? Isn’t that our job as parents? If you don’t want your child to read To Kill A Mockingbird, then by all means, don’t let him read it. That’s no reason to ban it so that no one else’s child can read it. Many of the books being banned are written by authors of color or LGBTQ+ authors. Many of the banned books are about racism, gender, or history. Are these people afraid that kids are going to learn something, perhaps from another person’s perspective? …that they will learn reasoning and communication skills or increase their vocabulary? Holy cow. Some school libraries are completely void of anything with substance!

There’s a simple solution to this problem. We all most likely agree that a 2nd grader shouldn’t be reading sexually explicit materials, such as Lolita or The Handmaid’s Tale, so leave those books (and similar others) to the public libraries. In school libraries, why not mark each book according to grade level and content. This way, the librarian will know if a second grader is allowed to check that book out of the library. For example, The Diary of Anne Frank probably isn’t suitable for a 2nd grader but a 5th or 6th grader would likely be able to understand what she is reading.

Also, parents! Stop being pussies about what your kid is learning in school! More harm is done to your precious demons when they’re constantly watching horror films and playing violent video games. They’d be better off READING! Consider perhaps reading those banned books with your kids and having discussions about the contents. Trust me, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are not what’s going to turn your child into a mass murderer. And reading books about LGBTQ+ identities is not going to warp your child’s mind or turn them gay or anything else. If your child is gay, trans, bi, etc., then that’s who they are, regardless of what they read or what you say or do. Harry Potter is more likely to spark your child’s imagination than turn him against your religion.

I’m afraid this is going to get even worse. Eventually, books are going to be banned in public libraries and bookstores. My advice: Get all the books you can now. Read them. Encourage your kids to read them. Learn!

Below is a list of some books that have been challenged or banned in various schools across the country. It is not a complete list. Get them while you still can! Most of these can be found on Amazon.

To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The Giver – Lois Lowry
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury 
1984 – George Orwell
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
Twilight – Stephenie Meyer
Maus I and II – Art Speigelman
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt
Malcolm X – Malcolm X
Girl, Interrupted – Susanna Kaysen
Hop on Pop – Dr. Seuss  YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!
Fifty Shades of Grey – E. L. James
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown
A Time To Kill – John Grisham
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
For Whom The Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
Go Ask Alice – Anonymous
Different Seasons – Stephen King
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West – Gregory Maguire
The Devil’s Highway – Luis Alberto Urrea
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
13 Reasons Why – Jay Asher
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Black Hawk Down – Mark Bowden
The Diary of Anne Frank – Anne Frank
The Prince of Tides – Pat Conroy
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Critical Race Theory – Kimberly Crenshaw
Walter the Farting Dog – William Kotzwinkle
Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
The Pentagon Papers – Neil Sheehan
The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
Forever – Judy Blume
The Perks of Being A Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway 
Grendel – John Gardner
Call of the Wild – Jack London
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents America: The Book – John Stewart
Shooter – Walter Dean Myers