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Elisabeth Reuter

Dr. Flores-Rodriguez

Particular Playgrounds

6 October 2015

Banned Books Week

I had the opportunity to take a look at the Banned Book Week exhibit at Ames. The

display was full of books with white covers on them. I recognized a majority of the authors but

instead of the books’ real titles, phrases like “not suitable for trash” and “a filthy, filthy novel”

were written on the covers instead. This display really goes to show that no matter how famous

and “classic” a novel is, it still has a great chance of being censored or challenged in some way.

In all honesty, my first reactions when I first saw the display were sadness and anger. As

I looked up some of the authors that I didn’t recognize, my anger grew. It angered me that people

could say such horrible insults to such great authors. The display on Anne Frank made me the

angriest. Of course, The Diary of a Young Girl is going to be a “downer”. It was about the

Holocaust and all the terrible things Anne, her family and her friends had to go through while

they were stuck in that attic. I know that censors might have had legitimate reasons to keep

children from reading this novel when they are young due to the Nazi violence and the mature

themes. But by calling the entire book “a real downer”, it puts down the novel to children who

are old enough to read it. It is like giving the novel a bad book review. I was also surprised to

realize I felt sad for the authors as I looked at this display. The quotes on the book covers were

insulting and degrading. I couldn’t help but feel bad that J.D Salinger’s book was called “a filthy,

filthy novel”. I just can’t imagine I would feel too great about my own novel being called that.

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On the other hand, Kenneth Kidd talked about censorship as almost a prizing in some

way. Censored books are set apart from other novels just as award-winning books are. Though

my first reaction would to be to feel bad that my novel was being called so many horrible things,

I believe after a while I would start to see it as a good thing. If a book is censored there is usually

something in the book that offends someone or is too “realistic” for children to handle. But the

world is real. The events that happen in life are sometimes dark and overwhelming but they still

happen. If I was an author of a censored book, I would feel pride in the fact that I was able to

educate children on something that others might be afraid of educating them on. Great authors

write about the world and its struggles. Not everything is always covered in rainbows. I would be

proud if I could teach children in a way that would not scare them, but encourage them to use

that knowledge to make the world a better place.