When it comes to banning books, stringent restrictions inhibit learning

What could Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" possibly have in common with Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl"?

Nothing, right? You might be surprised, but you're entirely wrong.

The dystopian novel and film series that had us wrapped around its little finger and the novel we read in sixth grade to learn about the Holocaust have been deemed inappropriate for some youth.

Between July 2021 and April 2022, 1,648 books were banned or challenged in 26 states. That total is more than 2018, 2019 and 2020 combined. For a country that prides itself on freedom, the right to read freely is under constant threat.

In a belated celebration of Banned Books Week, September 18 to 24, here's a short list of some of my favorite, underrated pieces of literature that have appeared on the American Library Association's (ALA) list of banned books. 

“Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” by Marjane Satrapi 

“Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” by French-Iranian graphic novelist Satrapi has received a wide range of praise and criticism since its original publication in 2003.

Satrapi's graphic novel is a first-hand account of the conflict within Iran from 1979 to 1987. The experiences of Satrapi's younger self influence her societal values, cultural identity and professional ambition.

While some parts of this novel can be shocking and upsetting to some readers, they are not inappropriate or worthy of censoring — Satrapi’s youthfulness and lack of a complete understanding of the changing world around her even protect the reader to a certain extent. 

In 2013, the Chicago Public Schools deemed this novel unfit for some students, despite having “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” in their curriculum for six or seven years. Parents were allegedly disturbed by the illustrations of torture, sexual assault, vulgar language and anti-democratic sentiments. 

Kristine Mayle, the Chicago Teachers' Union financial secretary, commented on the hypocrisy of the Chicago Public Schools’ curriculum surrounding the novel. One of those central questions being “Can you justify the restriction of somebody’s rights in the name of protecting them?” 

“Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein 

“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a collection of poems and illustrations by American writer Silverstein. 

While the poems in this collection are satirical on the surface, they possess deeper meanings and various implications that have earned “Where the Sidewalk Ends” a place on the ALA's list of banned books.

In the titular poem “Where the Sidewalk Ends" Silverstein writes, “for the children, they mark, and the children, they know the place where the sidewalk ends.” This poem encapsulates the impending doom that is adulthood. 

"Where the Sidewalk Ends" was recently removed from various school and public library shelves across Wisconsin. Critics claim that it promotes the use of drugs, disrespect for any authority and suicide.

I don't agree with this interpretation. Silverstein's poetry blurs the line between childhood and adulthood. Through his writing, he addresses them as equals capable of understanding the real world.

Unlike Silverstein, parents and educators do not treat children as academic equals. If they attempted to break down intense concepts into rudimentary ideas, perhaps certain novels would not be worth challenging.

By the way, you're supposed to take poems about someone eating a baby with a grain of salt. Trust me, he's not subliminally influencing your child to practice cannibalism.

“All American Boys” by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds 

The novel “All American Boys” was co-authored by Kiely and Reynolds. The pair met in 2013, when the verdict of the trial of George Zimmerman for the second-degree murder of Treyvon Martin, a Black, unarmed, 17-year-old boy, was announced.

This instance inspired Kiely and Reynolds to write “All American Boys,” a novel about racism and police brutality in a modern time frame. The perspectives go back and forth between the Black Rashad Butler, written by Reynolds, and the white Quinn Collins, written by Kiely.

Discussions on social justice issues are integral in modern-day classrooms but have a history of making concerned parents and educators uncomfortable due to their political connotations.

These many concerns reached an all-time high in 2020, as the Black Lives Matters protests pointed out uncomfortably similar instances of injustice.

In 2019, novels “All American Boys” and “The Hate U Give” were removed from a summer reading list of a high school in South Carolina. The reason? Indoctrination of distrust in the police. 

What advocates for book-banning fail to consider: Every piece of literature is open to personal interpretation. “All American Boys” won’t make your innocent child hate the police. It’ll provide an example of an abuse of power in a system society rarely questions.

There's a long history of book banning in the U.S. and all over the world. It's important to interrogate why these books are banned and whether their bans are justified — in the instance of these books, their exclusion from curriculum was not.