My most prominent childhood memories are of reading: surrounded pink blankets as thick as the layer of snow falling outside.  Every book was a canvas, my mind painting vivid scenes of castles and villages as paint dripped each page.  I was an immigrant deep in a wooden ship being tossed by the volatile Atlantic Ocean; I was a mermaid, shimmering tail dancing through the sand.  When I reached the end, I was finally jolted back to the frozen New England night.

Now, literature shapes my views on the world.  Reading has given me empathy for those who are oppressed because of race, an understanding of the Russian Revolution, and a desire to travel, so I can see the momentous places that affected thousands of people.  Through books, I have been leaders, revolutionaries, and saints, although the categories are never as clearly divided as I once believed. 

Literature is a seamstress; it has altered the many tiny threads of humanity to create the canvas that is the world.  However, there is an opponent to one of humanity’s most basic rights to an unbiased education, one that includes reading, and that is the movement to ban certain pieces of literature.  A diverse groups of books has been challenged for various reasons, including religion, societal disapproval, or politics. 

Regardless of the reasons, I simply cannot understand why anyone would want to ban this knowledge.  What kind of arrogance must one person have to declare what I can and cannot read?  Who is the judge on what is appropriate?  If we ban books, we are really banning our history, our present, and the ideas that revolutionize our world.  Each book that has been challenged or banned, from The Great Gatsby and Where the Wild Things Are to Uncle Tom’s Cabin and To Kill a Mockingbird, tells an essential story, the story of our ancestors.  Each book reflects our society, in the past, present, or future, and to censor books is to ban parts of our society.  Everyone is welcome to have their own beliefs, religion, and culture, as long as they respect the ideas of others; banning books is a barbaric practice that destroys this individual freedom. 

The beauty of knowledge is that it is universal.  Books are the carriers of that knowledge.  To ban books is to ban the free-thinkers and the ideas that created and continue to drive the United States today.  To ban books is to destroy the girl who is curled up by the window, imagining the incredible things she can do one day.