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Essential Banned Books
By Stuart D. Kent
May 3, 2004
In a society saturated with
choices, sometimes it’s nice to receive some knowledgeable recommendations.
Books are banned in America,
particularly from public school libraries, for a number of reasons. The books
on this list have been banned at one point in time or another, beginning in the
1970s by at least one library or organization. Believe it or not, some of these
were banned for a single offensive word or phrase. However, these are essential
books for reading to broaden your education and take a glimpse at works that
often support reality and uncover truth.
Huckleberry Finn
By Mark Twain
Huckleberry is an American icon of childhood, innocence, and adventure.
Unfortunately, he referred to his running partner in a term unpopular with folks
in the 21st century, even though the story was written in the 19th
century. This is Mark Twain’s piece de resistance.
Civil
Disobedience
By Henry
Thoreau
This essay is often
bound together with Walden, also by Thoreau. Walden was written
during a two-year living experiment to see if Thoreau could “drive life in a
corner” by living as simply as possible. He was arrested and placed in jail for
not paying taxes, and responded with his classic work, Civil Disobedience.
When his good friend Ralph Waldo Emerson came to the jailhouse to see him,
Emerson asked Thoreau what he was doing in there. Thoreau asked Emerson, “What
are you doing out there?”
The Bible
By
Various Authors
This collection of 66
serious works is as controversial today as it was 200 years ago. The
paraphrased edition, The Living Bible, was actually burned in North
Carolina in recent years. Those weak of heart and the squeamish need not
purchase this book, as it is only for the hardy soul who wishes to read about
the adventures of charlatans, implicit acts of adultery, and the public
execution of a man who walked on water.
The Diary
of a Young Girl
By Anne Frank
This young Jewish girl’s
diary is a testament to the innocence of the six million Jews whose lives were
terminated during WWII. She is coming of age, yet suppressed by her environment
inside a secret chamber behind the walls of an office building and the others
existing with her in hopes of staying alive. Freedom never sounded so good
until I opened this short relic of history and began reading.
A Clockwork Orange
By Anthony Burgess
When England is conquered and under Soviet rule, the citizens become mesmerized
by the “flickering blue light” of government-controlled television. Since the
initial objective of military takeover of a country is to seize and control all
mass media, Burgess demonstrates how quickly a society can become anesthetized.
I say: America has already become brain-numbed by the overwhelming
influence of commercial television and the inane programming that airs every day
and night relentlessly for the ever-increasing entertainment appetite of
citizens like you and me.
To Kill A Mockingbird
By Harper Lee
This one-hit-wonder by still-living Harper Lee spins a warm yarn about the
South, her soothing genteel ways and ugly prejudicial status quo of dirt-poor
towns like the one portrayed in Mississippi, written before most of you were
born. Read it in fear, not because of the outcome of the story, but for the
fact that in each of us lies a tiny spot of prejudice and hatred, which, if
allowed to fester, can become malignant and kill a walk with God.
Where the Sidewalk Ends
By Shel Silverstein
Judged by some to flick a booger in the face of authority, I read poems in this
book only if I need to watch children roll on the floor…with laughter. Clearly
some of the funniest and most innocent set of poems about children and the
problems inherent with growing up. I recommend reading a “Sidewalk” poem as a
message on the answering machine of someone you know that needs a lift in his or
her otherwise dreary life.
ninetyandnine.com
© 2004, Stuart D. Kent
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By day, he is a mild-mannered
fireman, but by night Stuart D. Kent reads banned books to unsuspecting
children. | 
