Kids share their thoughts about banned books with NPR

Books seen in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Aug. 18. There have been a growing number of books pulled from school libraries in the past few years.

Harkim Wright Sr./AP

There’s a lot of discussion and debate about the rise in efforts to remove certain books from school libraries and curriculums. It usually involves adults debating the issue — but it’s kids who are affected.

So how do young readers feel about book bans? We asked some.

We spoke with Sawyer, 12, from Arlington, Va., Theo, 9, from St. Louis, Mo., Priya, 14, and Ellie, 14, both from Austin, Texas. To protect their privacy, we’re only using their first names.

Here’s what they said:

Sawyer: I don’t like it. It just feels weird that you’re gonna, like, cut it off from them. … Why are you trying to hide information from your kids? It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. … If you take something away from a kid, it kind of makes them want it more.

Theo: It’s pretty much taking away books from people — like even books that people actually might like. If you ban every book, then there’s not really going to be any books left to read. So what’s the point of it?

Ellie: So many books are banned nowadays. I was looking up lists earlier and it’s like hundreds of books… One of my favorite books that I recently found out was banned is Rick by Alex Gino. It’s a book about a kid who learns that he’s asexual, which is an LGBTQ orientation. … I was just starting to question when I had read that book, and it really helped me sort of figure out that sort of thing. It was really interesting to me that a book that helped me so much and that I love so much would be like challenged or banned.

Priya: Books provide people with that…