“I will not play at tug o’ war. I’d rather play at hug o’ war, where everyone hugs instead of tugs, where everyone giggles and rolls on the rug, where everyone kisses, and everyone grins, and everyone cuddles, and everyone wins.”
You may recognize this little poem from Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. This beloved book of poems and short stories was a bedtime story staple in millions of homes and has delighted both children and adults for many years. Would you believe it has been widely banned in many school libraries?
Longwood University’s annual banned book reading seeks to shed light on an issue that goes on more often than we are aware of. Held in the Greenwood library, the 2014 banned book reading consisted of 16 readers who all chose to share a selection from their favorite banned book.
The event drew a huge crowd and even had readers of all ages. Audrey and Nicholas Magill read from The Hunger Games and Captain Underpants. While Camden Tracy read from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows and described the wildly popular book series as “actiony, wandy and wizardy.” Of course all of these modern day classics have been put on the banned book list.
At the heart of this event is a kind of peaceful rebellion. Each reader briefly states why his or her choice was banned and why it is an important piece of literature.
Kirsten Gaines, a Longwood University student, read from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and said she was no stranger to the effect banned books can have on people, especially children.
Gaines responded, “What’s interesting is I was a huge Harry Potter fan as a kid and my mom’s super religious friends would send her these articles about it and ask why she was allowing me to read the book, saying it was anti-god.
I sat down with her and said I can explain to you the themes in the book. It’s not affecting me in a negative way. It’s all about good conquering evil. She understood and I had free reign to read what I wanted.”
Gaines went on to say that unlike many school libraries, hers allowed the students to read what they wanted without restriction.
“Luckily, I grew up in a school system in Loudon County that offered a wide variety of books that other schools may have been banning.”
Liz Ritchie, a Longwood University student who attended the event, said she was shocked by some of the books that had been banned. “I was confused by a lot of the books that had been banned, but some of them were especially weird. Captain
Underpants was one of my favorite books growing up, so was
Where the Sidewalk Ends. I just don’t think [that] it’s right to do anything that might discourage kids from reading.”
In fact, many times when a reader introduced the book he or she would be reading from, you heard a collective mumble go out across the crowd that sounded like “they banned THAT?”
While this brief annual event may not stop parents from angrily requesting that certain books be taken from library shelves, it is doing a fantastic job raising awareness of an issue that has been affecting bedtime stories for many years.
