As discussed in class, the amount of books on the banned book list is extremely large. The majority of our favorite books and books we had read in school were on a banned list. I chose to read The Five Chinese Brothers, and while I was initially surprised to find this on the banned list I quickly realized why it would be. I had not remembered this book being explicitly racist, however the images in the book were very stereotypical images of chinese men. These images could be taken to be offensive. I found it interesting that the author dedicated the book to her father for leading her to love China. Even though the images could be seen as racist images, the author also had some background (that is unknown to the typical reader) in the country.
Typically, books on the banned list share similar reasons for being banned. Reasons for being challenged include controversy about race, sexuality, religion and violence. These seem to be the biggest four taboo topics in society that are apparent in these books that are banned. These issues are always controversial when represented in schools. However I find it important that these issues be discussed or at least presented in schools, in a fair and equal way. Students are exposed to these issues regularly in their lives no matter what. And it is therefore important that students be presented these issues in an educational, and safe setting.
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