This year鈥檚 theme for , September 23-29, goes to the heart of why we read鈥攆or the story鈥攁nd the damage book banning does鈥攕ilences stories.
I鈥檓 not privy to the inner workings of the minds of those who challenge books, whose wish is that others won鈥檛 have access to them, but my guess is that they fear others鈥� stories. Oddly, book challengers believe so strongly in the power of reading that they fear the impact a story might have on their child or even on their community. They fear the reality鈥攅ven in fiction鈥攐f the people in the books who are different from themselves, who speak and behave differently, who have different ways of thinking.
聽is a good example. Four of the top ten books were challenged for LGBT themes while others were challenged for profanity, for sex, for topics such as teen suicide or drug use.
Now, let鈥檚 be clear, readers are not reading to learn how to do the things characters do in books, as many challengers seem to think. Readers are reading for the story, to encounter fictional people who are different from them or even the same, but people they can watch but who can鈥檛 hurt them.
The Library of Congress/#WeNeedDiverseBooks Program Seen & Heard, the Power of Books聽features four diverse authors speaking about the importance of books and stories in their lives as readers and writers.
Mitali Perkins points out 鈥淭hat marvelous ability that books give us to see and hear other lives, to imagine other lives鈥︹�� and suggests that teachers, 鈥淧lay around with the windows and the mirrors..let kids roam freely鈥on鈥檛 limit them to just the ethnic or racial mirror.鈥�
Margarita Engle tells us that, 鈥淪omething I鈥檝e strived to do is to write about people who have been left out.鈥�
What is it about people who fear others鈥� stories? I don鈥檛 know. But I do know that stories鈥攁ll stories鈥攁re how we make sense of the world.