Callicoon, NY

To the editor:

So many stories that we’ve read over the years bring back memories of beloved characters and unimagined possibilities.

Our knowledge of the world grows as we read each and every story. Do you remember reading Where the Wild Things Are, or Brown Bear, Brown Bear, or Winnie the Pooh, or Strega Nona? 

Are you smiling at your memories? Perhaps it’s time for us to stop smiling and start rethinking the purpose of print in our lives. 

Each of the books I’ve mentioned has been banned in different areas of our nation for different reasons at different times. Somewhere, the possibilities that exist within these stories were taken away from children. 

If the function of any book, according to Dr. R.S. Bishop, is to provide  “mirrors, windows, or sliding doors,” what happens when books are gone? 

Windows and mirrors become walls that close off the possibilities of what could be. Doors of new information are shut with each unread page.

In the dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury creates a society that bans reading as a dangerous activity. The irony is that the book, itself, has come under banning attempts throughout the years. The “story” of banned books has become an increased reality. According to the data of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), “the number of titles targeted for censorship surged 65 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the highest levels ever documented by the American Library Association (ALA).”

September 22nd – 28th is Banned Books Week. Let’s be the change that’s needed: Let’s read.