Helen on Banned Book Week

Banned Book Week. How strange that we celebrate this, but I think it's such an important issue. I totally understand that a parent might want to keep a certain book away from their own child, but to try to take it away from everyone? Seriously? What happened to freedom of speech? Don't these banners understand that books are more interesting when they are banned?

Wait! I get it, the people who ban are really trying to get their kids to read by making it seem more enticing, right? No? Oh well, silly them.

Here are some of my favorite banned books because they are linked to fond life memories.

• Judy Blume's books--who can forget discovering what it's all about through Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and Then Again Maybe I Won't.

• Go Ask Alice--I remember passing this one around in sixth grade and encouraging each other to read the dog-eared pages. Decades later this is still a favorite amongst students at the high school where I work.

• The Harry Potter series--every darn one of these (and the movies) is dear to me. When I got to see Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station in London, I was SO excited!

• Of Mice and Men and To Kill A Mockingbird--both of these were books that I actually enjoyed reading in school even though they were required.

Of Mice and Men - Wendy's Review

The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft agley [go oft awry] And leave us nought but grief and pain For promised joy!

by Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759 - 96)

John Steinbeck's classic novel, Of Mice and Men, is one of three novels he wrote exploring the California agricultural labor phenomenon of the 1930s (the other two were The Grapes of Wrath and In Dubious Battle). In this novel, Steinbeck focuses on the friendship between two men - George and Lennie - and their shared dream of owning land and a home of their own.

The story is simple and occurs over the span of three short days on a Salinas Valley ranch where the two men have found work as farm hands. Thematically, Steinbeck explores the idea of dreams and how plans may go awry through forces beyond one's control. Given the time in which the novel was written, his handling of the mentally handicapped Lennie is tender and compassionate. Steinbeck describes setting beautifully, and wraps it around the characters whose personalities emerge through their dialogue and relationships with each other. There is enough foreshadowing to predict the novel's tragic end.

I read this book July 13, 2007 and rated it 5/5. Highly Recommended.

Why Was It Banned?

Of Mice and Men was banned by some schools and libraries in the United states for promoting "euthansia" and use of profanity from May 1983 to May 1984, and also in 1993 and 1994. This book is no longer banned.