Got into it with my book club over "The Absolutely True Diary" - two sides to this whole banned books thing

So last month my book club picked The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Half of us grew up reading it in school, the other half had kids who got it pulled from their libraries. I started out super defensive about book bans, like anyone who challenges a book is just trying to censor stuff. But then my friend Sarah - whose kid is in 5th grade - said "look, I'm not saying no one should read it, I just think 10 year olds don't need to be reading about masturbation in a classroom setting." And I kinda froze because she had a point. On one hand, the book is about real Native American experiences and poverty and finding yourself. On the other, some of the mature content feels like it should come with a parent talk first. So where's the line? My copy was sitting in a high school library, but her kid found it in the elementary section. Is that a ban or just a placement issue? What do you all think about age restrictions vs outright bans?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai56415d ago

Dude, that Sarah friend basically said exactly what I've been trying to articulate for years. I grew up in a small town where the school library had one copy of "Speak" locked in the principal's office and it drove me crazy. But then my neighbor's third grader brought home "The Lovely Bones" from the school book fair and I was like wait a minute. It's not about pulling books from existence, it's about matching the content to the kid's age and maturity. The difference between a high school shelf and an elementary shelf should be common sense, not some big censorship crusade.

wells.reese15d ago

My buddy Mike's kid came home from 5th grade last year with "A Thousand Splendid Suns" his teacher recommended. Mike was like cool, I love that book, and then realized it has that graphic scene where a woman gets stoned to death. His kid was reading it like it was a school project and had no idea what was even happening. That teacher meant well but just threw age appropriate out the window.