Banning Fiction Books

Schools are meant to be a safe environment full of books and learning opportunities. If this is impaired by books that should be banned, students may feel displaced or uncomfortable. Even a high schooler is prone to this, if action is not taken. There are hundreds of books full of violence, explicit language, and drug references. Annenberg Classroom says it is “unsuitable for students” (AnnenbergClassroom.org). Students of all ages are strongly suggested to not partake of those things, and reading all about them can cause them to think it is acceptable. It is up to administrators and parents to decide what should be allowed in school libraries. Everybody has different beliefs, but most people would not want their

“It’s not books you need; it’s some of the things that once were in books” Page 82 of Fahrenheit 451. I agree with this statement completely because many of the topics in many books are beneficial to know. However, I believe that certain concepts portrayed in books are one sided and vague and not completely suited to teach young or maturing minds the concepts they attempt to portray. I personally believe that books should be censored, at will, by parents who believe they have a more appropriate way to teach their own son or daughter about the topics they are censoring from them. I must add that banning all books as Fahrenheit 451 suggests is not the answer. Many literary works have the same concepts but teach these concepts from different viewpoints

Everyone who has ever read a book has read a book by a banned author. Book banning has been around for hundreds of years. People should be allowed to read whatever they choose. “The ability to read, speak, think, and express ourselves freely is a right, not a privilege”

The school board is wrong for thinking that fiction and novels don’t have a place in the schools curriculum. There are several reasons for why the school board is wrong about removing fiction because it destroys all chances a student could get like learning about social issues involving discrimination, isolation as well as conflicts involving the ability of power to corrupt everything in a non realistic world. This can be situated by the novel “The House of the Scorpion” by Nancy Farmer who writes about a clone named Matt and how he has to go about being treated differently and how his life has gone. The first reason why the school board is wrong is because of the effects of discrimination. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary it defines discrimination

Many schools are taking books out of their curriculum because of the harsh and uncomfortable language and topics. The Biloxi School District had taken To Kill A Mockingbird out of their classrooms and Drake High School had even burned all copies of Slaughterhouse -Five. It is wrong that schools began taking books like that from their lesson plan because students should not be oblivious to these kinds of topics and it is sending the wrong message about the authors and their books.

The other protagonist is Quinn, who witnessed the beating of Rashad but felt conflicted about it because Galluzzo practically raised him once his father died. The book deals with racism, injustice, police brutality and many other topics that have come to light in recent years. The book, while fictional, deals with real-life problems. It serves as an informational guide inside of a fictional tale. The school board has come to the decision that the fiction genre is not necessary to curriculum as it does not have any educational value.

"Books are dangerous. They make you think…feel…wonder…. They make you ask questions (Weiss p.2)."

Books allow the mind to flourish, to wonder, to become the escape from reality that is desperately needed from time to time. Books can make no social comment, such as Dr. Seuss’s “Hop on Pop”, where the reader is just allowed to escape and go into an alternate reality. Books can also make a statement about social occurrences at the time, such as Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”. Orson Scott Card‘s “Ender’s Game” falls into a category in between where it allows the reader into an escape from reality while making comments about the society of the time, as well a look into an exceptional child’s mind. All three of these books have something in common; they have all been at some point have had an individual or several individuals try to ban the book. Most often those who try to get a book banned do so due to violent or offensive content. However in some cases the reasons the book gets banned is completely ludicrous, as it is in the case of “Ender’s Game”. Card’s novel “Ender’s Game” was banned in Utah due to the efforts of a Mormon, who got a hold of a Baptist ban list, unaware of one way to get on that list is to be Mormon (Card Student). This shows that not all efforts to ban a book stem from the reader being offended by the content; in cases like this the person banning the book has not even read the book.

I agree with Sarah Begley in “What The List Of Most Banned Books Says About Our Society's Fears” because she states how us as citizens have rights, and one of them being the first amendment which grants us freedom of press which prevents the government from interfering with distribution of information and opinions, which is why we shouldn’t be challenging or banning books.” We don’t get many challenges by diverse people,” she adds. In recent years, book challenges have peaked while religious liberty bills were in the news, she says. Some causes for for banning or challenging books may be religious reasons, the religious liberty bill protects us and our freedom. I think this statement is reasonable because people have rights which protect them

I believe that books play a key role in school so they shouldn’t be banned.

The community should do what they want to do. They shouldn’t be told to ban books from their school district. They should be able to read what they want to read especially in schools. I don’t think any books at our school are banned from our school library because Illinois I don’t think has any banned books.

“It’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written, the books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers” (Blume 1999). Judy Blume can not explain the problem of book censorship any clearer. The children are the real losers because they are the ones that are not able to read the classic works of literature which are the backbone of classroom discussions all across the United States.

It is my belief that since by the time the child is required to read such literature in school, they are at an age where they can distinguish between things that should and should not be said and it is the job of the parents to educate the child that just because they say it in a book does not mean he or she should.Another subject common to banned and censored books is sexuality.

This is because the community comes up with the wrong decision and does not know what they are doing. The teachers and the parents themselves rather than the whole community should control what is read in schools because they know what is best for their kids. In the first paragraph of the article it said that the school board voted against having the book banned and won. This shows that school board and the people within it know what is best for the kids that they teach and that they should control what the kids in their own school read.

The school board is not quite certain that schools should continue to include fiction in the curriculum. However, if fiction is taught to students it may actually teach life lessons. Fictional literature can change someone's perspective on, what problems we may come across. For instance, a fictional book can help us relate to all the controversial problems that do occur in today's society. I disagree with the school board's thoughts about completely banning it. This type of literature can deepen our knowledge and teach us about things that we don’t experience on a day to day basis.