These students, teachers, and authors want to ban bigotry, not books.
across the United States. The first half of the past school year saw 1,477 separate instances of book bans in the US, including 874 unique titles in 37 states,that book bans are discriminatory and a violation of the First Amendment in a specific school district in Georgia, it is unlikely that this ruling will stop book bans altogether.
from her position during her third year on the job for promoting LGBTQ+-friendly books in her classroom. She was targetedfor a video she’d posted that displayed a “Proud Teacher” banner with various Pride flags and featuring different books with queer characters.“When these books are taken out of classrooms and libraries to protect kids and bills are being passed that don’t allow educators to talk about queerness, racism, white supremacy, it simply takes away a means for children to learn about the world around them and start to imagine how they can dismantle systems of oppression rather than maintaining them.” Below, we speak with authors, readers, and activists against book bans about the banned books that have made an impact on their lives and why it’s so important to fight this push for increased censorship.was one of the first young adult and coming-of-age books I'd read featuring a queer protagonist. I loved Cameron's journey of self-discovery and the claiming of her identity, as well as her finding her own community and her own version of family. I found this book as I was coming of age and it was so important to me. As a part of the children's literature community, I am deeply saddened to see an alarming and increasing number of books being challenged or banned. I often think of something that author Malinda Lo, whom I deeply admire,: It's not always about the flashy book bans that make the news, but about the silent, private choices on whether to teach, publish, or sell certain books. That carries a deep and profound effect on our educational and cultural landscape. Books were my lifeline as a kid. That is the case for so many kids. Books educated me in a way that shaped the person I am today — on important societal issues, on topics I couldn't necessarily learn through classrooms or my immediate community, and on how to be a more understanding and compassionate person. I want this for everyone.by Rainbow Rowell. [As a transgender aromantic asexual person], I connected to the character Baz and how he felt forced to hide himself due to others opinions of who he was.[by Jerry Craft] and many more of my favorites. Of course, it’s important for readers to learn about the perspectives and lives of people different from themselves, but even more crucial for kids to be able to see themselves in the stories they read. Taking that away from us is like saying that we don’t matter. As a Jew, it’s beyond important to me that readers learn about the Holocaust, one of the scariest and most horrible times in our history. Yetfor being too graphic. While I agree that there are books younger kids shouldn’t read, that’s up to the parents. You can’t take the right to learn from history from communities, counties, and even entire states and countries. Our world is full of so many stories we need to tell.… How can we make the world a better place if we know nothing about the world and the people in it? More importantly, kids deserve to see themselves in the novels they read. So many people like me can sometimes feel alone in the world. That’s what books are here for, they’re an escape for us. They make us feel safe and, best of all,by S.E. Hinton was the first book I not only enjoyed reading for school, but it depicts loyalty and empathy — something I hardly understood the depths of until reading that book. The book ban [push] has divided communities. It’s doing more harm than it has ever done good. Most of these books that are banned communicate subjects with their young readers that adults often ignore. The book banning hinders communication and knowledge for important subjects. Staying informed is probably one of the most important things to do during a book ban. I read these banned books and I use my platform to acknowledge and share the books that have been banned. Following creators that are not afraid to speak up about these issues and use their platform to spread vital information is also important. My platform will always be a safe space to express opinions and concerns. Banning these books takes away rights from readers. Depriving children and students from important ideas and information is worth fighting over. Censoring these subjects is not the answer. It’s a step back rather than a step forward.“My favorite banned book” feels like a horrible sentence to write. The fact that this book saved my life and is banned in many schools and libraries across the country doesn’t break my heart, it infuriates me. I was sexually assaulted at the end of eighth grade. I was so ashamed and terrified that I didn’t tell anyone for years. The protagonist of[by Laurie Halse Anderson], Melinda, was raped going into her freshman year of high school. I wonder what it would have been like to read her words, to see that someone else was scared of what had happened to them.by Juno Dawson might allow queer teens to ask questions about their sexuality so that they feel like they are not alone and have a space within the book to learn about their identity. The banned book that has made a huge impact on my life, arguably more than any other book in the world, is Becky Albertalli's. The book follows Simon Spier, a boy struggling to come out to his family and friends all the while falling for his online pen-pal, codenamed Blue. The romantic subplot with Blue and the mystery of trying to figure out who he is are both amazing aspects of the story, but it is the heartfelt and tender depiction of struggling with one's sexuality that makes this book so important and relatable to many readers. Fiction is a mirror to reality, and if kids do not see themselves in what they read, they may doubt themselves, their identities, and the validity of their very being. Fighting book bans is like fighting any form of censorship or authority attempting to dictate what is right and wrong. To ban a book is to close off all discussion. Even the most harmful of books can be a means of conversation about why they are bad. Banning books suggests that there is an inherent moral value that we must hold books to, which also stifles creativity.was hard for me to read because hearing stories about other people’s experiences that are so different from my own can challenge me and my beliefs.made me more aware of my own privilege and with that it also made me feel responsible to do more as an ally to a marginalized community.would be banned before it even got published, but it’s not really funny. Book bans are concerning. It is what we learnedAlso, my summer reading was from the banned book list because I figure those books are the ones I will learn the most to help me be a better person.by Louis Sachar]. Reading about him finding community among the zany outcasts of D-Tent at Camp Green Lake left an impact on me. Since the book's release in 1998, there have been multiplebecause of its language and clear illustrations of the impact of racism across generations. But it's always been a story that stuck with me. In my experience, being a Black author has always come with an additional set of risks and expectations. I’ve received comments about people immediately having no interest in my characters because of the color of their skin. Despite this, I’ve always been hopeful that if I tell a great story, and create relatable characters, my work will find an audience. However, recent book bans have dampened that optimism. Instead of choosing to ignore books they don’t like, people are making a concerted effort to erase access to these stories, which impacts authors and audiences in unfair and harmful ways. When I joined TikTok, my goal was to bring positive stories to the people that needed them. I built a positive community that has experienced firsthand the life-changing power of stories. Now that those stories are in jeopardy, my community has been extremely supportive. BookTok has allowed my seriesto find a new audience, and enabled me to continue my work of bringing book access to kids around the country. If the concerted effort to ban access to books is not met with equal resistance, there will be significant ramifications for readers and writers in the near future. This issue is about more than the state of public opinion, it's about protecting access to stories rooted in truth and representation. If we give people the ability to remove books from the public canon because they are discomforted by their contents, where will we draw the line? How long until the darker parts of America’s history are omitted from classrooms entirely? How long until authors of color start to lose opportunities? And, more grimly, how long until publishers start removing these things from books proactively. If we don’t fight now, we won’t have the option to later.Blue Ivy Carter Shows Off Makeup Artist Skills on Beyoncé's Mom Tina KnowlesCan We Talk About Kendall & Kylie Jenner's Human Feet-Like Shoes?
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