Coming Of Age Books Essay

At a young age millions of children all over the world learned how to read. From the first day they learned to decipher the lines and scribblings on a page they were challenged to look at the world through the eyes of someone else. Whether that someone else was real or fictional mattered not; they were putting themselves deep into a foreign perspective and learning along the way. What they learned may have depended on the maturity level of the child, but more often than not they learned the lessons taught by the characters’ actions and words. Books are a part of our history, symbols of revolution and change, expressions of basic rights, and new ideas. The ideas in literature are valuable ways for young people learning about the world around them. By banning and censoring books children and young adults lose far more than a few books, the experience gained from reading is lost.

“664 book challenges were reported between the years 2000 and 2010,” (Best qtd. in Anderson 8). Though this is a staggering number, the amount is likely larger as not all challenges were reported. This number includes children’s picture books, young adult novels, classics, contemporary media, and adult novels. Research shows that “eight out of the ten challenged books in Best’s study are either children’s or young adult books,” (Anderson 7). These results say something about the culture of the world’s growing youth. Are all these challenges really necessary, or is it the older generations trying to protect the younger generations from reading something that may make them question a certain area of society? Youth, in their rebellious stages yet, will claim that their parents and elders are not allowing them enough freedom to read as they