Taken from the ALA

I was brought up to believe censorship was wrong. To believe that anyone had the right to say or think anything, even if I might find their views offensive or strange or downright crazy.

I hope my new son will be a reader. I hope he’ll love books as much as I do. I hope books will be a bridge between us when I stop being the centre of his world and become annoying and embarrassing and everything else mums always become.

I hope in books he’ll find friends. I hope he’ll find people just like him going through the exact same things. I hope he’ll find people completely different from him and learn that difference is nothing to be afraid of. I hope he’ll visit magical places – beaches and jungles, the past, outer space, other worlds.

I hope books will provide him with answers and prompt questions and help his imagination take flight.

Most of all I hope he will never walk into a library and be unable to find a book that could have provided him with comfort or information or just pleasure because someone decided they knew what was best and right for every child in America.

We shouldn’t have banned books. I applaud those who fight to keep them on the shelves.