Students at Hawthorne High School have joined the National Banned Books Week movement. This year the week runs from September 30 to October 6, and during that time, schools, libraries, and bookstores all over the country will have activities that call attention to the problem of banned and challenged books. During the week, people all over the country will celebrate the freedom of authors to write and the freedom of Americans to read.  As a freshman student at Hawthorne High School, I am very excited and proud that my school is participating in this national event. I think it is going to build awareness to our school on what goes on in the “world of books.”

The National Week was first celebrated in 1982 when book lovers noticed that too many books were being banned or challenged in schools, libraries, and bookstores. According to the American Library Association, since that week in 1982, more than 11,300 books have been questioned.

One book that has caused major controversy across the country for about two years, and recently in our own school district, is 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This book has a lot of mature topics in it, from bullying to suicide. Some schools and parents don’t think it is appropriate for children to read. I strongly believe that all students should try to read this book to see how bullying and treating someone without respect can harm and hurt that person. Another popular book that has been both banned and challenged is the very popular trilogy The Hunger Games by Susanne Collins. Some people think it is anti-ethnic and anti-family, but I believe people just aren’t seeing the good in the book. The book is about a challenge-to-the-death that 24 teenagers must go through each year in a world where reality-type TV is used by the government to keep the people from revolting. The teens who are the main characters learn that they would rather be true to themselves and to their respect for each other than to play the game that would kill one of them. The book is very harsh and brutal, but the lessons learned about love and human respect are worth it.

Even classics that are taught in our school have been banned in other times and places. These are books like the novels To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Of Mice and Men  by John Steinbeck, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1984 by George Orwell. The fact that these books were once banned, but are now required reading in our school because they are “classics” shows us all that no one should tell anyone else what should be read.

National Banned Book Week helps me to see the harm censorship can do to our country. According to the official website for Banned Books Week, since 1982, this event has grown into a premier literacy event and a national awareness and advocacy campaign on censorship.As students walk into the HHS library this week, they will see a display on Banned Books showing the different books that have been banned in the past. I hope when the students see the many books on display that have been challenged, they will see that books should be able to send out any message, to any person.