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Banned Books Week Banned Books Week

By Jacob Kronberg

KRONBERG:
Banned Books Week occurs once a year and is used to celebrate the freedom to read. In 2019, that week is happening right now. From September 22nd to September 28th, library’s across the nation are putting an extra emphasis on why the right to read is so important.

Salina Free Library’s librarian, Monica Norton, explains the main reason she thinks it’s important to read.

MONICA NORTON:
“Harry Potter for fun, To Kill a Mockingbird for school, a lot of them really have timeless themes. Which is why they continue to be in the public eye.”

KRONBERG:
Those are just a few of the notable books that have been challenged or banned at some point in time. Some others are, The Catcher In the Rye, Animal Farm, Captain Underpants, The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.

Books that most have read, or at least heard of in their lifetime.

KRONBERG:
When it comes to Banned Books Week, Adrienne Landless finds it essential simply for the exposure of the topic and the classics it involves.

ADRIENNE LANDLESS:
I think just bringing awareness to the topic, in it of itself, is just good. For the various reasons, good and bad, why these books have been banned in the past. Children may not know that now, but that awareness is beneficial

KRONBERG:
Banned Books Week is about celebrating the books that you love as a child, and at one point in time they were challenged or wanted to be banned from the general public. Whether it’s Captain Underpants, The Lord of the Flies, or even Harry Potter. Banned Books Week celebrates them all.

Jacob Kronberg, N-C-C News

Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC News) — Banned Books Week is an annually occurring event that celebrates people right and freedom to read. Sept. 22 to Sept. 28 is the 38th occasion of Banned Books Week.

Banned Books Week dives deeper than someone just reading any book at any time. It is about one’s  ability to get information and knowledge from books.

“Books, in it of themselves, are purveyors of knowledge. Anyone is available to acquire the knowledge through them,” said Salina Free Library’s Desk Clerk Adrienne Landless.

This plays into the reason Landless believe the challenging or banning of books is terrible concept.

“Any time you start to restrict it and tell someone what they are and aren’t allowed to learn is dangerous,” said Landless.

Banned Books Week is a topic that united people from all realms of the book world. Whether it be teachers, librarians, writers or readers, the cause reaches all of them. This week gives them a dignified way of supporting the freedom people have to learn from and enjoy the information and knowledge books give them.

Some believe that the reason some challenge books from being in the public eye because they focus too much on one aspect of the book, not the true theme or meaning.

“For instance, Harry Potter is being contested because people believe that it is going to teach children witchcraft. While the themes in the book are about friendship, about love, about making a family, when you have no family, loyalty, all types of strong virtues,” said Monica Norton.

Norton is one of the librarians at Salina Free Library and stresses that fact that people who are trying to challenge books need to look at the book as a whole or collective and see past the possible blip that may find inappropriate. Look at those themes such as loyalty and friendship.

That people need to realize that these books have timeless themes and there is a reason that after so many years they are still a focal point in the eyes of readers, writers, and teachers.

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