Books and Book Banning

They open up the entire world to a beginner. They instruct and guide children all the way through elementary, middle school, high school and college. There are clubs, libraries, stores, websites devoted to them. They are spiritual, informative, suspenseful and intriguing. Books have been with us for centuries.

Old books are fascinating. The Gutenberg Bible, it is known as the 42-line Bible, is listed by the Guinness Book of World records as the world’s oldest mechanically printed book. The Buddhist holy text, the Diamond Sutra, is considered to be the oldest surviving dated printed book in the world. It was found in a cave in China. The book was copied by a man, Wong Jei in May 868 AD. Of course, the Holy Bible is found in many translations, versions and sizes all over the world.

Many of you may remember reading in your history book, the burning of 25,000 books on May 10, 1933 by university students in 34 university towns across Germany. The books by Jewish authors like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud along with blacklisted American authors such as Ernest Hemingway and Helen Keller went up in flames.

Books have also been controversial over the years and especially now. Many parents are outraged over the contents of the books in schools. They are objecting to the sexual content and even pornographic pictures. In my opinion, these types of books should not be allowed in any of our schools for any reason. Children should be more concerned with running races, jumping rope, swinging from monkey bars, playing tee-ball or soccer than what is inside a book that may be harmful to their innocent minds. They are only children for a short amount of time and why subject them to these explicit books at such a young age? It should be up to the parent what their child should read. Children may not be mature enough to understand vulgarity, violence, and obscene language or pictures.

Many people trade books and sell books through the internet. Everything from fiction to nonfiction to religion can be found through numerous websites. Discretion is the key to finding wholesome and exciting books that can be gratifying.

Do you remember Little House on the Prairie books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder? My husband and I visited the little museum in Minnesota near to where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived. While in the museum, children from a local school were on a field trip to the museum. The children were so excited to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and memorabilia. Her books have touched so many children over the years and why can’t books like these be endorsed more in school systems? They are warm, wholesome, classic books.

Banning of books in public schools has been a hot topic for years and years. Parents should continue to monitor the types of books school libraries promote and contain.