I flew to Tampa, Florida yesterday. It seems on most airplane trips, you can generally chat about the weather with your seatmate, or ignore them entirely. Rebecca Neas and I did neither. A school librarian for years, she now helps acquire non-fiction youth books for county libraries near my home. Very early in our conversation, she spoke about the challenge of finding books to educate children without offending those who might believe a book contains inappropriate content. Then she said librarians tend to agree, “Censorship begins and ends at home.” Brilliant. From that point on, I knew we could discuss any book, and so we did for the remaining two hours of the flight.
Her comment and our conversation, made me realize the two reasons why it is that I love reading and books so very much. First, I have to thank people like Rebecca. I remember our librarians throughout my school years excitedly showcasing new finds and classics. They picked books relevant to our lives, to expand what we were reading, or to inspire us. Sometimes it was all three. The second reason is the simple fact that censorship ended in our home. There was no book, genre or subject out of bounds. Books were considered educational, and my parents encouraged us to read anything. Whether it was Brave New World, The Joy of Sex, The Diary of Anne Frank, or Choose Your Own Adventure tales, we were free to choose. And so it is that reading has always been an adventure.
Is there a book from this banned list you love?
