Pros And Cons Of Book Banning

CONUNDRUM OF BOOK BANNING: AN ARTICLE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Book critic Katy Waldman cultivated an article to describe the oppressive trend of book banning and its negative effects titled “What Are We Protecting Children from by Banning Books?”. Waldman hoped to force open the public’s eyes and convince them that the current uptick of book banning is only serving to suppress minorities instead of genuinely trying to censor mature content in children’s books. She mentions a plethora of different books that have been banned, some for reasons such as racism or profanity, others that were prohibited only because of a singular character that personifies a minority. Throughout the article Waldman makes great points and provides examples for her

Waldman, a well proclaimed book critic who has won many awards, believes that banning books because of mature content is understandable, however, it becomes a problem when people are challenging every little detail about a book, and trying to censor certain groups of people, such as people of colour, or those who identify as LGBTQIA+. She starts off the article by describing books that have been banned in the past to provide context for what is happening today. Waldman then moves on to explain the checklist by which books are being vetted for now: They must contain no pornography and be “suited to student needs.” While it seems that it is not very strict, most books that are being banned are not for those reasons, but more so that they do not align with a specific political view. 41% of banned books feature LGBTQIA+ themes and characters -both major and minor. Other problem subjects include ‘race and racism’, ‘rights’, and ‘religious minorities’. Waldman proceeds to go through the two most banned books in full, and provides more examples of books that have been banned without reason. She concludes the article by stating that trying to protect children from reality and harm is perfectly normal and expected, but looking at the list of most banned books makes it very clear that ‘mature content’ is a very flexible definition and that “what parents and advocacy groups are

She goes into a great amount of detail about the specific books she uses as examples. Well over half of the article -if not more- is dedicated to in-depth discussions regarding her examples. To be more specific, when she is mentioning Sherman Alexie’s ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” she goes so far as to talk about the characters by name, and reference plot points that may be unknown to any that have not read the book. This over-explanation is especially evident when compared to The Guardian’s article, The Guardian view on US book bans: time to fight back. In this article, the prominent topic is not the books themselves, but the situation regarding book banning. They have managed to address the topic and reference specific books without getting overly caught up in the plotline. Waldman’s article is incredibly well-written, it just goes into too much detail with the