It's time once again to take a look at the list of books that other people deemed to be too dangerous for you or your children to read for the year 2010!

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson 
   Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie 
   Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence
3. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley 
   Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and sexually explicit
4. Crank, by Ellen Hopkins 
   Reasons: drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins 
   Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence
6. Lush, by Natasha Friend 
   Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
7. What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones 
   Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8. Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich 
   Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, and religious viewpoint
9. Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie 
   Reasons:  homosexuality and sexually explicit
10. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer 
    Reasons: religious viewpoint and violence

Now, I can honestly say I have only read 4 of the books on last years list (one of which I am sorry that I did, can you guess which one?). But #3 is one of my all time favorite books, and I have read it probably 10+ times, does that count?

My point isn't a look what I read post, I do those all the time :) This is much, much more then that. It's a wake up call. It's me trying to grab people by the virtual shoulders and shake them awake!

WAKE UP MAN!

It starts with little innocent things, like, hey, we really don't want our kids to read "And Tango Makes Three," because it makes us uncomfortable, it makes us have to think or deal with subjects that we'd rather just ignore. So yeah, that's just fine if they take that out of the library. Less work for us to pay attention to what our kids are reading, if we let "them" decided what can be in the library. Right?

Yep, less work for parents if they let someone else decide what their kids can read, and why not let them decide what they can watch on TV or in movies, what music they can listen to as well. A whole committee can be made to decided what is appropriate for your children, so you don't have to think about it. Makes your job so much easier right?

The problem with that is, it's NO ONE ELSE'S BUSINESS what is appropriate for my child to read, see or hear. That's part of my job as a parent. And as soon as I let someone else start making those decisions for my kids, who's to stop them from making them for me?

What about the adult titles on that list? Are you okay with those being removed from public libraries? Are you okay with someone telling you what you can read? That is the next step, their goal, you know? They want to CONTROL what you can read. And once they have that, what's to stop them from controlling what you watch and what you hear? 

I am not saying that all of this is a slippery slope to Big Brother. What I am saying is that you can't just not think about it. You can't just not act, when things like this are happening. It's the people that stop thinking about these little things and stop acting that allow the big things to happen. 

 So what can you do to about Banned Books? Click the graphic at the top of this page for the link to the American Library Associations page about Banned Books, and read how you can get involved!