by Danielle Zarcaro

Created on: May 12, 2009   Last Updated: May 13, 2009

Just having finished my Senior English Seminar on children's literature, this question displays an unfortunate ideology that we as a society hold. We feel that children are "innocent" and should be protected from the evils of the world. Since so many of us hold this ideology, it seems absurd that Harry Potter's dark premise be considered children's literature. It is the same faulty argument that extremely religious people used to try to get this book banned from library shelves. Harry Potter is in no way evil and children do not need to be "protected" from it. I am not suggesting that we expose children to rapists and murderers and kidnapping, but rather I am suggesting that we do not isolate children from literature that does not harm them. However "dark" this series may seem, it does no harm.

Youth literature can be defined in a couple of ways: literature written with adolescents in mind and as the targeted audience, and literature that is deemed appropriate for adolescents despite the lack of adolescents as a target audience. But who decides what is right for adolescents to read? I feel it should be available for all to read, and if parents or guardians feel that it is harmful, then they are the ones to be overprotective of their children. These parents would be depriving their children of useful literature that is fun and is actually getting their children to read. So many people do not read on a regular basis and that gets passed on to their children. Websites are written at a third and fourth grade level because of the lack of intelligence of our general population. Banning books because some parent or some librarian feels it is too "something" for the children are only depriving them of a good book. If a child wants to read a book, let them read a book. If he or she wants to read, there will come a time when he or she will find a way to get a copy of it whether or not the parents decide it is the right literature to read. You can't control your children forever, and why choose literature as a way to do so?

Simple-minded, closed-minded, illiterate people who go along with whatever the majority tells them; those are the people wanting to ban these books. It is time to worry about the problems that are really harming our society instead of the knowledge children will gain by reading a good book. Censorship, however well-intentioned it may be, is going to be the downfall of our society. Adults who think they have the right to prevent children from doing one thing or another. They don't.

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