Thursday, April 21, 2011

On Banning Books

Warning: mini rant

I'm sorry, but I just get really agitated when people start talking about banning books. No books should be banned, none. But I think what irks me the most are the books people want banned. I mean, the number one most challenged book of 2010 was And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. This a picture book telling the true story of a chick adopted by two male Emperor penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo. And do you want to know why people wanted this book banned? Because they felt it promoted homosexuality. Penguins people, we're talking about penguins here.

End of rant.

And now a quote from a very smart lady:

"While we firmly support the right of every reader to choose or reject a book for themselves or their families, those objecting to a particular book should not be given the power to restrict other readers' right to access and read that book," said Barbara Jones, director of the ALA's office for intellectual freedom. "As members of a pluralistic and complex society, we must have free access to a diverse range of viewpoints on the human condition in order to foster critical thinking and understanding."

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