Students explore the realm of 'banned books'

Columbia Falls High school last week wrapped up “Banned Book Week,” a national event hosted by the American Library Association that encourages students to read banned or challenged books.

Soozi Crosby, CFHS librarian asked students who participated in the event to write a review explaining why they thought the book they had chosen was banned.

Sophomore Kyle Lane checked out The Book of Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley. The wordless book, which is drawn in the form of comics, chronicles the various methods of suicide attempted by the bunnies. Some methods are deliberately ridiculous and amusing. For example, one comic shows a bunny propping a massive boulder on a stick and lying under it, then releasing a box of wood lice near the stick.

“It was very funny, Lane said of the book. “It was probably banned because it’s suicide- very creative suicide at that. It gives people the wrong idea.”

Lane offered insight into how the book had the potential to be problematic.

“If someone was suicidal, it could give them ideas of how to do it,” he said.

In his written review, Lane suggested that the book was challenged “because people at the time thought intentional death was wrong and unethical.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Lane said, “but it’s a funny book. I think whoever picked it up would enjoy it, and it’s a quick read.”

Skylan Questell, a freshman, chose to read and review Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, the vampire novel with a massive following.

“I liked the book a lot. It was the first book that actually caught my interest,” Questell said.

Despite the number of fans Twilight has, it has also been the target of its fair share of poor reviews and infamy as the butt of a number of jokes, particularly online.

“A lot of people say it’s stupid, and I wanted to see for myself,” Questell said. “I think it got banned because of religious reasons, because vampires and werewolves are witchcraft or satanic. And it’s kind of explicit.”

In her written review, Questell again pointed to religion as a key reason that the book was challenged, “because maybe these religions were having some great effect on the popularity of the book.”

Overall, Questell said she would recommend the book.

“It’s amazing how many classics have been challenged that are used in the classrooms,” Crosby said.

Crosby pointed out A People’s History of the United States, 1492-Present by Howard Zinn, a challenged book that is used in advanced placement history.

The most common things that books get challenged for are politics, religion, sexuality, and age-appropriateness, Crosby explained.

Crosby is a member of the Intellectual Freedom Committee, which operates under the Montana Library Association and deals with challenged media.

“It’s not always books. It can be any kind of media,” Crosby noted.

Banned Book week brings up First Amendment rights.

“Everybody has that right to express themselves. It’s not right to push your beliefs on people,” Crosby said. “But it is all right to say, ‘I’m not comfortable with this,’ or ‘I am comfortable with this.”

“The First Amendment is also a right to read,” Crosby added.