Many historians point to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin as the first book in the United States to experience a ban on a national scale. Some go as far to say that it was an instrumental cause of the Civil War. Whether it was or not is immaterial to this discussion.
Why, in this year of 2022, are we still banning books? I mean classics! Both in adult and children’s literature. I am appalled at the small-minded people who think they have the right to tell me what I can read. What right does their morality have to over-shadow my right to read what I want to read? Books are like music, if you don’t like listening to a song you can turn it off. Likewise, if your morality doesn’t allow a particular book, for God’s sake, don’t read it.
Look at the following list of children’s books that have been banned by schools and some libraries:
Classic Children’s Books That Have Been Banned In America
- Where’s Waldo? by Martin Handford
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
- James and the Giant Peach by Ronald Dahl
- Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
- Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
- Heather has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
- I am Jazz by Jessica Herthal & Jazz Jennings
- Anything by Toni Morrison
Hop on Pop, are you kidding me? That was one of my favorite books to read with my grandson, Dylan.
Winnie-the-Pooh…really? Winnie-the-Pooh?
No, no, not Goodnight Moon. Come on now, is this a joke?
Why would Hop on Pop be on the banned list? Are you ready for it? Because it promotes children’s abuse to their fathers. Yes, that’s right, hopping on pop is father abuse. I used to love to wrestle with my nephews, and even my grandson. Yes, there were times when one of us would accidentally get an elbow or a knee in a compromising place. It was never abuse, at least in our family.
Why was Winnie-the-Pooh banned? Because it gave attention to mental and physical disorders like eating disorder, ADHD, depression, etc.
Why was Goodnight Moon banned? When this book came out it was sorely disliked by the children’s librarian at the New York City library. Apparently, she had the power to ‘kill’ books she deemed inappropriate for children. However, in this case, the book became a classic anyway.
It seems that our culture in this 21st century wants nothing to do with any kind of writing, video or conversation that has to do with race, gender, mental health, and particularly the white man’s intentional abuse and oppression of Native Americans and African Americans. Not to speak of the genocide of war like the Holocaust.
White privilege came at the expense of decimating the total Indian population to reservations that were worse than prison and ripped African Americans from their families and homeland just to serve white privilege. The white community is too embarrassed to share that history with their children. Apparently, Texas is good at rewriting history to continue serving white privilege, and that seems to be the main reason for banning such books in 2022.
I know that our democracy is teetering on the brink of collapse. We are a house divided.
Jesus, in Mark 3:25 says, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (NIV) Book banning is just the removal of another brick from our foundation that gives privilege to one side of this divided house. Which side are you?
