Banned Books – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

I sorta had a good time assembling this puzzle – a puzzle image that shouldn’t exist if you ask me. I honestly had to stop several times while I was working on this because after assembling a book cover that I wasn’t familiar with I would look up what it was about and why it was banned; I just kept getting more and more frustrated, angry, and sad. In a supposedly free country why should anyone get to decide what someone else reads? The answer is…..they shouldn’t. Ever.

This puzzle had me pretty damn fired up, so if you’re just here to see the puzzle and hear me talk about the assembly you should stop reading after this paragraph. It was a good quality puzzle with a beautiful collage image that was entertaining to assemble when I could dissociate my brain from the reason these books were put together to make this image in the first place. Just like The Nineteenth Amendment the rest of this post is about the subject matter of the puzzle rather than the assembly.

This blog is about puzzles, not politics – but this puzzle is a collection of books that have been banned because of politics and repressed prudes and/or zealots thinking they can control what others think or read or learn or feel. Screw that. Screw them.

There are many books here that I may not want to read because they just aren’t my taste, but that doesn’t mean I get to keep others from reading them because I don’t like the subject matter or the content. What’s next? Big bonfire in front of the library? Or should we just set the libraries on fire and get rid of every book that has anything questionable at all?

They’ve just enacted laws in several American states that would mean jail time for librarians who help children get a banned book – because they’re providing them with “obscene” materials. Who decides whether or not a book is obscene? Well, it could be the angry lady down the street or some puritanical priss who’s never used the word damn and thinks ladies showing their ankles is scandalous, or just about anyone at all; apparently others can now decide what is inappropriate for you and/or your children to read. WTAF?!

*can you tell I’m still fired up about this?* 🤬

I’ve chosen three books to highlight, two of them I’ve never read and the other one of them is my favorite book of all time – it’s one I’ve read many, many times. I cannot fathom censoring books for any reason, but the reasons given for “challenging” and/or banning these books really p*sses me off.

This informational book for kids ages 8-10 was written by a certified sex educator and teaches children about their bodies, sex, and people and families of all kinds. It has been censored in just one state 36 times – just one state! Here’s why, “because it addresses sex education and is believed to lead children to ‘want to have sex or ask questions about sex’.” Sex and sex education is a touchy subject with many people, but not allowing your kids to learn about their bodies and sex can lead to terrible consequences. How you choose to do it in your home with your children is completely up to you; but taking away the opportunity for other parents to use this book to help teach their children is NOT ok.

Sigh. My favorite book. Yes, it has talk of a sexual assault and the N-word in it; but it’s used to tell the story in a way that highlights how destructive racism is and can be. And wanting to go back and whitewash the language and/or the storyline makes no sense to me. It’s how some people spoke and acted at the time (ignorant and racist as it was), but pretending that events fictionalized in this book never occurred in the real world and that people didn’t actually speak that way is beyond stupid. It’s so beyond stupid I don’t even have words to describe how asinine it is.

It brings to mind a quote…”Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”

The Librarian of Basra is a true story of a woman who rallied her community to protect and save as many of the library’s books as possible when war broke out. Why was this banned you may ask? Well, according to many racist, xenophobic idiots – sorry, I mean *parents* – it “promotes a religion other than Christianity” and “takes places in the violent settings of Afghanistan and Iraq.”

It’s a book for children, it isn’t violent – it just takes place in countries where a war was happening; and talking about another religion isn’t promoting it, it’s being truthful to the story.

I gotta say, if you’re raising your children so that they do not even know about other countries, other religions, or that violence and war exist – they are in for a rude awakening when they go out into the real world. A very rude awakening indeed. Honestly people, what has happened to us?

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As you can tell, book banning makes me very upset. The United States of America is supposed to be a democratic republic – not a theocracy or a dictatorship. Your religion, political leanings, or set of beliefs are yours to have and enjoy but they shouldn’t ever be allowed to infringe on the rights of others to have a different religion, political party, or set of beliefs.

You don’t get to decide what is appropriate for my children or myself to read, and you don’t get to take away the opportunity for us to check a book out of a school or local library because you don’t like it.

In fact, it’s none of your damn business what anyone in my family is reading, thank you very much!