Banned Books Week

My good friend Angie wrote a post about this year's Banned Books Week (I stole your image, Angie - it was too awesome not to - hope you don't mind!)  Although I could never claim to be as prolific a reader as she is, I still love it.  I am seldom without a book.  If I don't have something new to read, I will revisit old friends.  I firmly believe that you can't read a book too many times, and I have, thankfully, passed that belief on to at least one of my children.

I also firmly believe that there is no reason why books should be banned or challenged.  We are all blessed with the ability to make good, informed choices for ourselves.  I am raising three readers (well, okay, to be honest: one truly voracious reader, one semi-interested reader, and one who can't actually read yet, but in this house and with these parents, regardless of their interest level there's no escape from reading - it's just what we do) and therefore have an interest in making sure that they have a variety of reading experiences available to them.  Not everything we read needs to agree with our own personal ideals, beliefs, or convictions.  What a dull world that would be!  And while I will not allow them to read things that are beyond their maturity level, by allowing my girls to read books about topics outside their own experiences, I'm inviting them to learn about the differences in our world and, hopefully, opening the door for some great discussions.

So I'm writing this post to share my thoughts with you all, which are: if you don't like the looks of a book, don't read it, but please, please, please, don't judge a book by its cover!  You never know what value might be inside until you've experienced it for yourself.

Just Say No to banning books!