Written by Ephrem N
Book banning should be prohibited. Readers from across the globe should be free to read whatever they want to read and whatever suits their tastes; they shouldn’t be stopped from reading a book just because someone thinks it’s harmful. Here are some of the best books that have been banned in the past that you should definitely read.
Looking for Alaska by John Green | Goodreads
According to the American Library Association, this was the most challenged book of 2015 (topping Fifty Shades of Grey), accused of containing sexually explicit scenes and offensive language. John Green has responded to this ban by saying that “text is meaningless without context”, as parents are teachers are only reading that one single page and judging this book by this only scene without reading the whole story, so they are not grasping the meaning of this scene in the context of the narrative. This is definitely a great novel featuring John Green’s exquisite writing that only makes the book’s moral more beautiful than it is.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee | Goodreads
Although this book is considered to be the greatest novels of the 20th century, it was banned for employing racist terms and promoting white supremacy. This coming-of-age tale that deals with racism is told through a young girl’s point of view as she witnesses her father (a lawyer) defending a black man wrongly accused of a terrible crime, in a world blinded by prejudices and hatred.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank | Goodreads
Yes, that’s how cruel the world is. This novel is the diary of a Jewish girl named Anne Frank as she details her life in hiding from the Nazis in an attic before being imprisoned in a death camp. But no, it was not banned because it described the horrors of the Holocaust, but because Anne briefly describes her maturing anatomy.
The Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling | Goodreads
This bestseller series has sold millions of copies across the world, and is universally loved and acclaimed by many. Whilst it is a very fun series and teaches readers the power that friendship and love have in conquering evil, some people saw it as “satanic” for its portrayal of wizardry and glorification of witchcraft. But they’re forgetting that these books have taught children to read critically and sucked loads of them into the universe of literature.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood | Goodreads
In the totalitarian Republic of Gilead, a dystopian United States, Christian theocracy has overthrown the government and women are deprived of almost all their rights, with the minority of women who are fertile taken as handmaids to bear children for powerful couples who are not able to. It has been banned for giving a negative view on religion and containing profanity and sex. But this is not what the book is about, it is about women’s rights, reproductive rights and equality. If they do not all coexist in this world, this is where we’re heading.
Do you have a favourite banned book? Tell us in the comments below!
