Banned Books Essay

Cook Shaw 802

All over the US, books are banned from schools, classrooms and even public libraries. It is a rising epidemic that books are being restricted from students of certain ages. The school boards and library coordinators have restricted many curious teenagers access to these books. Many of these desperate teenagers are faced with emotional or even physical dilemmas. These books can help them because he/she can relate to a fictional character with the same problem. Banning young adult books will void their ability to mend teens emotional problems.

Many teens across the world are unfairly presented with personal or family situations. Many cases involve problems like cutting or substance abuse. Topics like these usually stem from depression. Depression is the most common Young Adult Fiction topic, also a rising epidemic in young adults. According to an article published by psychcentral  "Approximately 20 percent of teens experience depression before they reach adulthood, and between 10 to 15 percent suffer from symptoms at any one time." 30%-35% or teens are or have been depressed. If a teen has access to a book that displays, even better, fixes their problem, then it can be very therapeutic for the victims of these horrible situations. For example, the article Banned Books Week 2010: An Anti-Censorship Manifesto.  "She saw herself in those, and suddenly, she knew that she didn't want to be there anymore. That book turned her around. today she's been sober for two years, is graduating and has embarked on a career in modeling"  This woman is one of many that banned books have turned her life around for the better.   A twitter post was published asking twitter users to use the hashtag #YASaves and share their storis about how YA fiction has improved their lives. In only two hours, over 15,000 responses were counted, showing the success of YA fiction in helping society. Common sense can judge that if these books help people then they should be accessible to the public.

Many parents and critics point out that children attending junior high schools should not be reading books that contain topics like sex, drugs, and abuse. When looking at this point of view , these parents are hiding their children from the real worlds dilemmas and issues. One example of a school banning a very powerful book called The Fault in our Stars by John Green has been published by Vanity Fair. This book was banned because the two main characters both have cancer and are on the brink of death, and many parents think that this topic is not suitable for teenagers. Many parents feel that the existential questioning and what may seem like troubling emotions should be restricted from junior highschoolers John Green reacts very strongly by saying , “I guess I am both happy and sad. I am happy because apparently young people in Riverside, California will never witness or experience mortality since they won’t be reading my book, which is great for them. But I am also sad because I was really hoping I would be able to introduce the idea that human beings die to the children of Riversdale, California and thereby crush their dreams of immortality.” I thought that this was a very powerful thing to say because his book was supposed to show these kids the reality that they can't live forever. I agree with John Green because a child cannot be sheltered from the harsh reality of life forever. Young adult fiction books help bring the issues of the world that need addressing into focus.

In conclusion, realistic fiction aimed toward teens is getting increasingly darker, but it helps guide kids through their teenage life of problems. Without this genre of books, many more teens would not be confronting their problems, perhaps holding in life impacting secrets, little ones to even substance abuse and sex. With this alternative to talking to someone, teens use these types of books to help themselves and to realise and fix mistakes that they have made.  Banning YA fiction will inhibit teens ability to realise the real world for what it is. The ban will also stop abusing or abused teens from seeing where they are and fixing themselves.