C'mon.

It's a little late, but today I'd like to address banned and censored books. And how much book banners infuriate me.

Yes. Infuriate.

After reading this post (click me!), I ache for Risha Mullins, and for her former students. No one should be pushed to the point where they must stop doing what they love because of the opinions of those who don't know the full truth.

What disappoints me the most (and I've blogged briefly about this before) is the ignorance of those who ban books. In one of the articles Mullins links from her blog, degrading her and taking what many blog readers and YA reader would call the wrong side, the writer openly admits not to having read the books in question, but goes on in the next paragraph to poke fun at the plots because they're not "literary" or because they have an actual, honest-to-God connection with teenagers. In fact, when referring to books such as TWISTED by Laurie Halse Anderson or LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL by Jo Knowles, the writer had the nerve to say, "Maybe they're appropriate for a course on Early 21st Century Lightweight Pop Fiction for Bored Teenagers, but a college prep course? C'mon." The writer even goes as far as insulting the names that the characters in these books have.


Um. Excuse me?


If you've read my itty bitty profile to the left, you would know that I am a newly-established college student; I graduated from high school in June 2010. I've had my fair share of college prep. I was in the top 5% of my graduating class of over 500 students. I've gotten the top scores on both AP English tests. I got an 800 on the writing section of the SAT, with a perfect score on the essay. 


I know my college prep, I can guarantee you that. 


I am also a journalism major hopeful. One of my goals as a journalist, whether I become a broadcast journalist or a person who writes in a newspaper or magazine, is to promote understanding, and to inform the ignorant. That is, to know all sides of an argument. To take into account and respect more than just my own opinion. To know what my future children think of a situation, instead of simply deciding for them. To actually read, with an open mind, the books I want to challenge (though that will never happen). 


And finally, I am also a teenager. I'm still eighteen, and though I can now be tried in court as a legal adult, eighteen really isn't all that far from seventeen, or sixteen, or thirteen. Eighteen is certainly much closer to the teenage realm than thirty, or forty, or sixty-three-and-a-half. Three of my best friends are still in high school. Those who challenge what books are appropriate for college preparation are challenging the education of my friends, with whom I will have the opportunity to share the future. As a recently alumni-ed high school student, I am the one being affected. 


In high school, one of the biggest themes that abounded in classes from English to PE to Calculus was how the lessons we learned in those classes could be applied to the "real world". PE was so we could learn how to keep up our physical health. Math would be used all the time in some way, shape or form. In college, we'd be writing essays all the time; language is everywhere, and we'd better understand it. 


But ask any average student (don't ask an honor student--they'll just give you a long-winded answer that, in the end, may not make sense to either one of you, or may take too much thinking to process. Trust me, I was one of them. We're going for to-the-point, gut reaction here) what connection, say, the ILIAD has to what they did that day. 


Most teens you ask will probably have to think about that one for a while. Some may even give you blank looks and shrug. Some may ask, "Are they the band I heard on the radio earlier today?" 


To which I give you permission to respond, "Yes." Because fun is fun. 


However, hand them LOOKING FOR ALASKA by John Green, or AS YOU WISH by Jackson Pearce, or GIMME A CALL by Sarah Mylnowski, and give them around a week to read it (because teenagers procrastinate). Ask them for connections. Instantly, they may be able to relate themselves to Pudge in his skinniness, or how they have an enigma of a friend, or how they may have gotten what the wished for, but didn't expect the results. Many of the characters in YA fiction are even preparing to go to college themselves.


You want to teach teenagers about the real world, about preparing for college? Hand them a book. Hand them a book of their times. Hand them something they'll be able to understand. Hand them a banned/censored/challenged book.


Just hand them something real.


Of course, in no way am I saying that that classics such as BEOWULF or HAMLET aren't real. They are great books to learn about in a classroom setting, once you get over all the analyzing and twisted characters and messed-up plots. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every book that I have learned about in my classes. It's just that sometimes, having things laid out from the get-go in a straightforward fashion never hurt anyone. It is almost impossible to misunderstand what is laid out in front of you. Even if it's just one contemporary YA book in a curriculum of nine other classics, having a book that is so easy to connect with can be invaluable to students across the nation. Learning about the effects of rape, the consequences of harmful actions, or even being able to see characters you learn to love curse and kick and scream just as freely as the friends around you connects people to stories, and helps them to understand the themes without digging through unfamiliar language. Books such as SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson are just more accessible.

So if you want kids to read for college prep, to learn about the "real world" they will be surrounded by in college, feel free to give them the "Early 21st Century Lightweight Pop Fiction for Bored Teenagers". It'll teach them much more about the real world than you might think.

C'mon.

I don't know about you...

But I wouldn't want a guy who considers a book about a rape victim to be porn to be determining what books kids in my area should or should not read.

It's just not right.

If there's anything that I feel vehemently passionate against, it's the ignorance that so often goes hand-in-hand with book banning. Every time I hear about an instance of book banning--especially ones that are along the same vein as this one, which, admittedly, most are--it makes me sad that people close themselves off so much against the world and what really happens. Books are tools of understanding, and yet people like Professor Wesley Scroggins seem to be totally missing that point.

Though I write, I don't believe I'm the right person to go through a whole post on this. I'm too sad, and I'm afraid it would just escalate into something that I may not be proud of. :P So link time!

• Laurie Halse Anderson (author of SPEAK, the book currently in question)
• Saundra Mitchell
• Myra McEntire
• Veronica Roth
• CJ Redwine
• Harmony Beaufort

There are plenty more about the blog-o-sphere, but these are just to get you started. I have the Twibbon for the Speak Loudly movement on my Twitter, and there's the #SpeakLoudly hastag as well. Support books! And support more understanding.