Banned Books Week 2020

Hello everyone!

Today we are going to talk about banned books. In case you’re not familiar, banned books are essentially books that have been limited, challenged, or you guessed it banned, in schools and libraries and even beyond throughout the United States and other countries. The reason why books get banned or challenged are due to their themes surrounding certain political stances, occultism, adult content and relationships, drug use, and the list goes on. Limiting the access to read such themes in literature was thought to be in the best interest of schoolboards and the like and throughout time.

September 27th – October 3rd marks the official week of celebrating banned books this year. Celebrating the right to read and have access to the information that we feel so called to. I am going to be sharing some quotes from some of my favorite banned books, today I’ll share two since I missed yesterday (oops).

The first book I’ll share a quote from will be from one of my all-time favorites, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. First published in 1967, this book was challenged throughout many schools in the US for its themes on gang violence, drug and alcohol abuse, social class, among others. Anyone who has read this book knows that it is not a walk in the park and is a lot to take in for such a small book. It is also a book with a very powerful message about kindness and friendship. It is a story that has proven to be one of the most influential coming of age stories, hence why it is so heavily critiqued.

“Maybe the two worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.” ~ S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders

Staying on the theme of coming of age stories, the next book I will be sharing a quote from is the beloved Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. First published in 1999, this book was challenged and banned for its themes surrounding adult content, mental illness, and drug use. This is another small book that is a lot to take in, but it does carry many important themes, one of them being how you don’t always know what someone is going through. The book was written beautifully in the format of letters, unfolding a chapter in Charlie’s youth.

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.” ~Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Thanks for reading, more quotes to come soon!