Challenge Your Mind

It’s that time of year again kids… time to celebrate books and read all those that parents DIDN’T read but still challenged them so their kids didn’t read them. You know those books – the TERRIBLE ones that made your kid have an imagination. Like Harry Potter. Or Where the Wild Things Are. Or Captain Underpants for the love of all things holy. If you haven’t noticed, I love reading and am very passionate about all things literary related. And what really gets under my skin about the number books challenged over the years, are the actual reasons that these books have been challenged. Anything from discussion of homosexuality to political viewpoint to religious viewpoint. Nudity, anti-family, gambling, violence, drugs and alcohol – you know, anything and EVERYTHING that kids can see on the news or a TV show or a movie. But reading it is just totally a terrible thing. (sarcasm.)

And the majority of these challenges come from parents. Of course they do. I understand that parents want to protect their children and shield them from everything bad that could happen to their kids. But if they really want to protect them, LET THEM READ THESE BOOKS they’re challenging. They could LEARN something from these books – rather than find out through a late night HBO special, a magazine left out at a friends’ house, or even the 6 o’clock news. Reading a book can teach you so much – it can take you places you’ve never been, increase your vocabulary, and make it so you don’t sound like an idiot when you speak. I personally cannot IMAGINE a world without books. A world without beautiful speech and words. 

Did you know that 33% of US high school grads will never read a book after high school?

Or that 42% of college students will never read another book after they graduate?

Or that 50% of adults are unable to read an 8^TH GRADE LEVEL book?

These statistics are completely MIND BLOWING. Reading is something you will have to do for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. Not something you don’t have to worry about once you leave school. Adults NEED to be able to read – they have contracts to sign, bills to pay, and forms to fill out. And just think of all the places you can GO when you read a book – you can travel to any time period, anywhere in the WORLD when you read a book. You can have super human strength, the knowledge level of a doctor or philosopher, the imagination of a child. Books are the windows into the imagination. Open your eyes and see what else is out there.

I was extremely fortunate to have parents who read to me daily, and who consistently work with me to read on my own. I’ve heard this story many times from when I was younger – I’d grab a book from the shelf, tell my parents to come sit with me and read, and then I would sit and read out loud to them. Reading has ALWAYS been a huge part of my life. And it always will be. I love everything about books and literature. Taking trips to the library or the book store make me SO HAPPY. I love old books, new books, electronic books. I don’t love all GENRES of books, but I try. I love books that make me think. I love books that make me cry. I love books that make me angry and want to change the world. I love those that make me laugh, and those that were turned into a movie (even though the book is ALWAYS better.) In my dream house, I want a library. Where I could spend HOURS looking at the beautiful words written throughout history. I love that I’ve found a group of girls who love reading as much as I do, if not more.

Reading is good for the soul. It awakens your heart and mind, and allows you to go somewhere else – even if only for a short moment. And the fact that people try and take this away from children at such a young age hurts MY soul. Reading grows your imagination – and a life without imagination is... reality.

From 2000-2009, 5,099 book challenges were reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom. The reasons for those challenges? Sexually explicit material, offensive language, materials deemed unsuited to age group, violence, homosexuality, Satanic themes, religious viewpoint and anti-family. The most challenged book of 2013: Captain Underpants. For reasons of offensive language, unsuited for age group, and violence. I wish I were joking about this. Sadly though – parents are ass holes. Sorry parents out there – let your kid read a book. It is a CARTOON book. This isn’t a real child wearing underwear and a cape. IT’S NOT REAL LIFE.

So during this week and the celebration of banned and challenged books, I challenge YOU to hit up your local library, Barnes and Noble, Half Price Books and pick something up from the list of challenged books. You might learn something new.

S