101 Most Banned or Challenged Books: Shel Silverstein On This List

An article entitled, “Exhibit Highlights Banned Books” is dated September 26, 2006 and lists several of the 101 most banned or challenged books in the last 25 years. “The exhibit divides the books into categories explaining what people found objectionable, with categories such as violence, racial content, family values and magic and the supernatural.” I think categorizing banned books is a good idea, because it can help us pick out what banned books we might want to read.

Something I found to be of interest and to be quite funny is that Shel Silverstein’s book, “A Light in the Attic” was challenged because it "encourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them." I think it’s a little ridiculous that this book would be banned or challenged because of this. Shel Silverstein is a great children’s author and I don’t find any of his poems to contain violence or racial content. Putting this on a banned books list is just silly to me.
Another statement the article made was that “many books featured in the exhibit have classic status and are often featured on required reading lists.” This is strange to me because there are several books on these banned books list and yet, teachers still make their students read them even though parents are fighting for their child not to read them. I think it’s important for children to get a grasp on what some of the banned books contain. The parents who do not allow their children to read these books are hindering their child from seeing what happens in the real world. Reading banned books "makes people think, and wonder, and talk, and that's not something some parents want." I find this to be very true. As I stated early, there are so many parents today that want to protect their child from encountering these “bad” things contained in these books, so much so, that the parents are overprotecting their children. I do feel; however, that some banned books are inappropriate for certain age groups. If there is nudity or excessive cursing in a book, then teachers have to be careful and think about whether they should have their students read these books, if it’s appropriate for their grade level and if it’s really worth the future consequences.

"When parents say 'This book is not right for my child, therefore it's not right for anyone's child,' that's where they cross the line." I completely agree with what is said here. Just because one parent feels that their child shouldn’t read a certain book, doesn’t mean that another parent shouldn’t allow their child to read the book. Every parent is different and feels differently toward these books. As a future teacher, I know that I will have problems dealing with parents concerning certain books. If there are other books equivalent to the books that are banned, then I will try to use those books. I don’t feel that it’s necessary to get into an argument with a parent over a book their child was assigned to read.

If anyone is interested in reading a little more on this article, click on this link:
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2006/09/09-26-06tdc/09-26-06darts-01.asp