Friday, September 29, 2006

It's been a great week for free speech

Banned books week is coming to a close, but that doesn't necessarily mean the discussion is over! I hope all our readers have enjoyed reading girls' thoughts about censorship as much as the staff at New Moon has. I loved hearing about different banned books you've read and loved. One girl says that the only reason for banning books is if you just don't like reading:

"I have read the Harry Potter books and I really enjoyed them. I'm actually really upset that there's only going to be one more. The thing is, Harry Potter is a wizard. He's FICTIONAL! For Heaven's sake, no one can ever really become a witch or wizard! There's no reason to take the Harry Potter books off the market unless you absolutely despise reading period."

And to finish off the week, 13-year-old Sydney writes in with her thoughts about censorship:

"I believe cenorship is incorrect, if a parent does not wish to let his or her child read a certain book they should not allow them to read it. However trying to ban this book from a whole county is unfair to the poeple whose parents are allowing them to read it. I think that children should be able to read what they like with their parents permission but no one else's. It is up to the parent to see what their children are reading, if they don't like it, it should be the parents not the teachers or othe adults to take it away and give them another.

I also do not belive it is correct for a book to be banned because of homosexual content, race, religion, history, or language styles. The reason books have these topics in them is because it is important to the story. Many books are banned because of these topics, it is alarming to me when I am teased for reading a banned book."

Even though banned books week is almost over, we hope you'll keep commenting on the discussion here and speaking up for free speech!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My name is Fay, I am 8 1/2 years old. I read my first Harry Potter book and I think the Harry Potter series should be kept in the libraries and schools. The book is fantasy so the reader can have fun reading the book. Therefore the book can not harm anyone. If the Harry Potter books are taken out of the libraries and schools people will not be that happy because they like the series.

P.S. I do believe in witchcraft so that makes me unhappy that they do not respect witchcraft. Even though they do not believe in witches that is no reason to remove the books. Just don't read the books if you don't like them.