Ban This Book

Good books shouldn’t be hidden away. They should be read by as many people as many times as possible.

That’s what libraries were for: to make sure that everybody had the same access to the same books everyone else did.

How do you explain to someone else why a thing matters to you if it doesn’t matter to them? How can you put into words how a book slips inside of you and becomes a part of you so much that your life feels empty without it?

That means letting them read books that are too easy for them, or too hard for them. That means letting them read books that challenge them, or do nothing but entertain them. And yes, it means letting students read books with things in them we might disagree with and letting them make up their own minds about things, which is downright scary sometimes. But that’s what good education is all about.

Mr. Pilkey smiled. “Well, I wish they were on the shelves, where everybody could read them,” he said. “I think it’s important that libraries be a place where you can find all kinds of books. Good ones, bad ones, funny ones, serious ones. Every person should be free to read whatever they want, whenever they want, and not have to explain to anyone else why we like it, or why we think it’s valuable. I hope you all get a chance to read my books someday.

Probably because for all the amazing things books can do, they can't make you into a bad person

I wasn’t happy about it, but I respected their decision. Every now and then you had to break the rules to do the right thing, but a lot of times following the rules was the right thing.

Nobody has the right to tell you what books you can and can’t read except your parents.

Silly to you, maybe. All reasons are silly to someone else, and we think the challenges to the books already removed are silly. What makes one person’s reason any sillier than another person’s reason?

She was disappointed, I could tell, and suddenly the only thing I wanted in the world was to please her.

Every person should be free to read whatever they want, whenever they want, and not have to explain to anyone else why we like it, or why we think it’s valuable. I hope you all get a chance to read my books someday.

Every book banned by the school board in this novel is the title of a book that has been challenged or banned in an American library at least once in the last thirty years.

But I was beginning to see how she must have thought she was doing something good for us, even though she was wrong.

had to skim through all the names and holds to find out who wanted the book next.

I was lucky. My parents would buy me any book I wanted if I asked them to. Not everybody's parents could do that. That's what libraries were for: to make sure that everybody had the same access to books that everyone else did.

How do you say why you like a thing? You can point to all the good parts... But none of those is really the reason I've read it thirteen times and still want to read it again. That's something... bigger. Deeper. More than all those things added together.