Our Life Time By Harry Potter

Throughout time, countless great children’s books have been published and then loved by many. To name a few, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. What do these three books have in common? They were all published as children’s books, then kept out of their hands for numerous reasons. Parents and teachers claimed these books were unfit for children’s reading. They either introduced topics that were not open to them yet or went against their lifestyle. All around the world, great books are being kept from children for doltish reasons. They are being censored, then banned from their eyes. Taking this literature from them is ruining their childhood; it is preventing children from learning about the world and being ready for it. Censoring in children’s books needs to become less harsh or else they are going to grow up in a sealed world.

According to the American Library Association, famous children books such as, Alice in Wonderland, The Giving Tree, Charlotte’s Web, and The Lorax were all banned in certain states in the country. These are not the only books that have been banned, countless numbers of a variety of books have been removed, erased, or trashed because of how people negatively perceived them. The banning of books has been a long controversial argument from the time they were created. All over the world, a book has been banned or challenged because it did not meet the criteria a book should have in that community. Whether it be parents, educators, or officials, people regard the contents of the certain books as inappropriate and socially insensitive.

Dist. v. Pico made a reappearance in the case of Counts v. Cedarville School District. This time, the books that were removed were a series of iconic children’s books: the Harry Potter series. A concerned Arkansas parent disagreed with the messages shown concerning witchcraft and the lack of respect towards authority figures and the local school board agreed with her. This time, it was the parents of an elementary schooler who fought for the books to be available. The decision was made based on the ruling of Island Trees Sch. Dist. v. Pico that books could not be removed based on disagreeing with the material in them, especially if the books themselves had not been read by the very people trying to ban them. Almost exactly one year after, Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union was brought to the Supreme Court. After Congress had passed the Child Protection Act to prevent minors from accessing sensitive material (such as pornography and violence), the ACLU made the argument that their topic was too broad. What could be considered extremely obscene as far as subtext is concerned could be completely innocent with actual

The Eleventh Circuit Court held that if school board believes the books are too vulgar and sexually explicit for students which means that if any school curriculum regulations are ‘‘reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns” they can remove books from the curriculum. However, they decided to keep the book in the school library and allowed teachers and students to discuss the material during class discussions.

Brenyo, M. (2011). [Censored]: Book banning in the US education system. Journal of Law & Education, 40(3), 541–549.

There are many great books nationwide, but some get banned or restricted on who can you read them. “Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.” happens to be one of the many books that get banned from many schools districts. A parent named ‘Martin Roger’ wants the book banned from San Diego County from the schools because it's “pornographic”. San Diego Superintendent understands where he’s coming from but the book “Always Running” is protected by the first amendment. The book is banned from elementary schools, because one parent opposes for their child not to read this particular book, doesn’t mean all the children in the district don’t have the right to read it.

The information that children take in will shape their opinions about morals and values in society. In Fahrenheit 451, the reading of any book is made illegal; if one found out about another’s hidden stash of banned material, firemen would light the entire house on fire. The burning of books was extensively drilled into the society that a schedule evolved, which Montag explains to Clarisse. “Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes, then burn the ashes” (Bradbury 8). Even in modern day society, many schools and universities still ban books because they do not adhere to their teachings. According to the American Library Association (ALA), the top five most frequently challenged books to be banned in public libraries and public school libraries last year were: The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Color Purple (B). The authors of all of these books were similar to Bradbury. They questioned popular opinions at the time, and suggested opposing views that those in charge did not like. However, without these challenged views, Americans would never question those in power and would not allow themselves to create their own beliefs and

“We don’t really care about diversity all that much in America” (132). In “People Like us” David Brooks takes a logical approach through examining the demographics of our neighborhoods, our educational institutions, and he touches on an emotional approach by having his audience examine their values; he does this with hopes of having his audience question their word choice for the American value diversity, and question if the way they are living their lives invites diversity.

The poem “Between the World and Me” by Richard Wright reanimates the horrible scene of a racial lynching and forces the reader to endure the victim's pain through the first person’s narrative voice. The poem contains structured lines and visual division into three stanzas. Moreover, there is one more type of division in the poem. The author uses an ellipsis four times throughout the poem. This punctuation mark frames the poem into the timeline, where the historical past of the African American poet becomes the present experience of any human, despite the race. The climax of the poem is presented in the middle of stanza two. The animated moment, which starts from the sentence “the ground gripped my feet”, dramatically shifts the

Once upon a time, in a world not far from here, there are students who are forced to miss their annual train ride to Hogwarts, lock the wardrobe to the magical land of Narnia, and walk through the English countryside themselves instead of upon the back of Black Beauty. Why are these students deprived of those occurrences? They live in America, the land of the free- except when it comes to the books they can read. In fact, many schools across America exercise the practice of banning books. Since 1982, libraries, parents, and schools have attempted to ban 11,300 novels, according to the American Library Association. The essentially innoxious books are challenged for an assortment of reasons, including use of malapropos language, graphic or explicit

According to the American Library Association, the most common group of people, challenging a book being read in schools, was the parents of the students. Parents have a right to be in charge of what is put into the minds of their students, however just because one parent objects does not mean that the whole school should ban the book from the list. A solution for this book would be to enforce parental consent for books to be read in the classroom. If a parent does not want a book to be read in the classroom, then there should be other options for the student to read. The school and teacher should not trespass on a parent’s rights of raising their child. I believe that if a parent has a concern, they should go and discuss the problem with the teacher so that the teacher will be able to defend their reasoning for choosing the book to be read in the classroom.

“It’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written, the books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers” (Blume 1999). Judy Blume can not explain the problem of book censorship any clearer. The children are the real losers because they are the ones that are not able to read the classic works of literature which are the backbone of classroom discussions all across the United States.

“What is equality?” one might ask. We all have different views on specific topics and can describe what something truly means to one’s self like in the 3 text, “I have a dream,” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (published; 8/28/1963, genre; narrative and argumentative), “If we must die,” by Claude Mckay (published; 1919, genre; narrative and lyric), & “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (published; October 1961, genre; satirical & dystopian science-fiction short story). In all 3 texts the authors are giving their touch on equality. Equality can convey being treated the same when a colored and a white man/woman are next to each other as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr says. You can also see equality as Mckay who thinks it’s being on the same level of strength and worth as a white man being in the shoes of a colored man. Or equality can be being exactly the same in every way as anyone around you in every exact way in Vonnegut’s eyes. All these 3 authors have a particular view on how to answer “What is equality?” and we can compare their ideas.

Book censorship began in the 20th century, and over 11,000 books have been challenged (“About”). Books are insightful and informative, and when they are banned, students are prevented from learning more. Even the best novels are challenged. The Fault In Our Stars, a popular novel amongst young adults, was challenged on September 22, 2014. Karen Krueger, a parent of a student attending a middle school in the Riverside Unified School District, believes that “crude language” and teenagers “having sex” is inappropriate for middle school students (Hurt). Her initial defense won and the book was banned. After some consideration, the board voted for the book to be put back on the shelves on December 7, 2014 (Hurt). The vote to put unban the book

The power of love in Harry Potter is unlike any other. So much so that it is an overwhelmingly significant and recurring theme throughout the entire series. From the self-sacrificial love of Lily Potter to the loving mother Molly Weasley to the unrequited love of Severus Snape. There is also the misunderstanding, or the absence, of love; which is equally as important in the novels. Especially since it was the main difference between Voldemort and Harry that was incredibly essential to the storyline. So essential that J.K. Rowling went out of the way to tell us about it in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when Dumbledore said, “if there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love” (229, SS). The concept of love is woven so inextricably within the very fabric of the novels, that it continues to challenge the reader all the way until the very end.