Banned Books Month Guest Post from Kenley Conrad: An Open Letter to People who like to Ban Books
Attention people who like to ban books! Have you ever seen a teenager reading a copy of CATCHER IN THE RYE and thought, “I don’t like this and therefore no one else should either”? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat after having nightmares of children reading THE SCARLET LETTER? Are you on a first-name basis with the school board president because you’ve called so often to complain about local youths reading THE GRAPES OF WRATH? Do you have copies of FAHRENHEIT 451 stacked next to your fireplace in lieu of firewood? If you answered yes to any of those, then this letter is for you!
Simon & Schuster, Reprint Edition, January 2012.
I would like to invite you (yes you!) to ban my book. Yes, you read that right. Please ban my book. Ban the ever-living crap out of it. I would like it if you would print out leaflets announcing the ban on my book. Please make sure you include a ranting diatribe against the apparent sins of my writing. Hand the leaflet to everyone in your town or local high school. Send the leaflet to Mars for the Martians so they can be warned against the offensive sixty-thousand word novel that offended your eyes and sensitive mind. Please host a bonfire and roast s’mores over the smoldering remains of my book. You may be asking why I would want you to do these things. I’ll tell you.
Because I hope that while you are gleefully throwing paperback copies of my latest work into the flames there is a young girl who is overcome with curiosity about the book adults hate so much. I hope that she snatches a book from the fire and presses it against her chest and runs home with it while the dying embers singe her skin. I hope that she stays up late and reads this book under the covers. I hope that she’s introduced to stories and ideas she’s never known about and that it opens her up to passion and dreams she’s never known before. I hope that by banning my book, you push people closer to it.
Swoon Romance, September 2014.
When I was a teenager I was also drawn to the forbidden and the banned. When my parents said that I couldn’t read HARRY POTTER I responded by borrowing the books from a friend and reading them with a flashlight in the secret of the night. Silently and alone, I cried my eyes out during the whole seventh book in that exquisite kind of heartbreak that is purely exclusive to books.
It is time to face facts: banning books doesn’t work. Sure, you may keep the books off of school reading lists and out of public libraries, but you alert young readers to a book they may have otherwise ignored. You pique their interest. By banning books you encourage people to read them anyway. People will never stop buying and never stop reading banned books.
So that brings me back to my original point. Will all of you book banning folks out there please dig down deep into the shadowy depths of your black heart and do me a favor by banning my book? I’d really like to be a New York Times bestselling author and if you ban my book I’ll be one step closer to reaching my dreams.
XOXO,
Kenley
Kenley Conrad.
Kenley Conrad is the YA author of the Holly Hart series. Her book HOLLY HEARTS HOLLYWOOD is currently available on Amazon. Its sequel HOLLY HEARTS HEADLINES is available for pre-order. Kenley lives in Phoenix, Arizona and is constantly amazed that she hasn’t yet burst into flames from the heat. She has two cats and she has also been listening to the same Stephen King audiobook for a year. She enjoys binge watching Netflix with her boyfriend and taking long walks through to the refrigerator.
