LA Authors Talk About Banned Books Week!

I came across an interesting article in the Los Angeles Magazine titled Banned in L.A. -- Local Authors Talk About Banned Books Week by Elina Shatkin.

I think it's awesome to learn how authors feel about Banned Books Week. Plus, what they think about their own book being banned and also which book is their favorite banned book.

In Elina Shatkin's article, I loved reading Sonya Sones answer to the question "What’s it like to have a book you wrote get banned so frequently?" Sones stated:

Sendak, Salinger, Steinbeck…and me? I never met a banned book list I didn’t want to be on. I dance a happy little jig every time my book makes the cut again. Not because this will increase sales (though it does) and not because it will lead to more teens discovering and reading my book (though it will). The reason I love being on the list is that when I am, I get invited to speak at schools about why books shouldn’t be banned. Which is wonderful, because there is still the possibility that I can lead a child in the right direction, before they’ve been dragged too far down the wrong path by a misguided parent.  The ironic thing is that, in the scheme of things, What My Mother Doesn’t Know isn’t even particularly racy—no drugs, no alcohol, no bad language, and no sex. All it’s got is a little kissing. Go figure.

In Elina Shatkin's article, I also enjoyed reading Amy Gerstler's answer to "Is this week important and why?" Gerstler stated:

Literary censorship destroys and/or impedes human knowledge and erodes progress. It’s essential for our survival that we to be able to think, speak, and write freely, and that we humans remember the vast differences between works of the imagination and what happens in “real life.”

What did you think about Elina Shatkin's article Banned in L.A. -- Local Authors Talk About Banned Books Week?