BANNED BOOK WEEK!!!

  $15 Amazon Gift Card/Book Depository (INTL)!!!
    (intl - check to see if Book Depository ships to your country for free)


CLICK ON THE GIVEAWAYS TAB ABOVE in the LEFT SIDE COLUMN!!!
or, click on this link:  http://lauriehere.blogspot.com/p/giveaways.html  Scroll down! There are other giveaways!  More coming up through the week!
Please read the following post I have written of 'my opinion' of banning books, censoring, and keeping kids 'sheltered' from real life, which all ties into Banned Books. 


What do I think of Banned Books?  
I think there should NEVER be ANY Banned Book!  You may think what I have to say is controversial, but isn't EVERYTHING and ANYTHING in life today controversial?  YES!  IT IS!!!
I have a relative, an Aunt, who censored EVERYTHING my cousin watched on TV AND READ!  We used to go INSANE when it came to Birthday time or Christmas because we didn't know WHAT to buy for him???  One year we bought him the VHS tape "Roger Rabbit".  OH!! Was that a mistake! 

I don't know if any of you know what this movie is/was?  It was a regular movie with a cartoon rabbit edited in.  It was one of the first movies to go computerized I believe in 1988.  It was really cool!  This is going WAY back!  YEARS back! Yes!  I'm showing my age!!  
My cousin, 11 at the time, my brother, 16, and I, 20, were in my bedroom hanging out getting ready to watch a movie while the adults were in the kitchen and living rooms having boring adult and family conversation.  Boring!  I was the oldest and had a TV and a VCR in my bedroom.  I was LUCKY!  Not many teenagers/young adults had this!  I was already working by this age.  (I used to tape my Soap Operas, All My Children, in particular, which went OFF  the air today, and I honestly cannot stop crying! This shows you HOW long I watched the show! Since I was 8 years old! I know I'm off the subject here, and if you would like to read more about ME and All My Children, keep reading to the previous post down below!)
My cousin.  We put 'our' VHS tape of Roger Rabbit in my VCR to watch it.  My cousin couldn't WAIT to watch this/HIS new movie!!!  We started watching it.  There is a female bunny, Jessica Rabbit, who was 'very' curvaceous through the movie.  She sang a solo.  This is what my aunt was against my cousin watching.  She flipped OUT!  UGH!  This is a MOVIE!!!  NOT real life!  Kids DO know the difference!  If they do not, this is where the parent NEEDS to step in!  Where are you, parents?
So when my Aunt and my cousin would go shopping in the mall, or even in the grocery store, and a woman had on provocative clothing, what did she do?  HOW could SHE control my cousin when other people wore these clothes or did bad things?  NOTHING!  EXCEPT TO TEACH HIM WHAT IS RIGHT FROM WRONG!  
She had SO many hang-ups!  She censored EVERYTHING!!!  So much so, I often wonder if this is how he ended up in prison?  Was he SO naive about the bad, he didn't know right from wrong because he was so sheltered from it that he couldn't determine right from wrong?  His mother did NOT teach him about REALITY!  Every child needs to be taught what reality is!  If they don't, it's a disservice because there can be so many bad things out there!
I know my parents taught me when things like this came up, what was right and what was wrong.  I think my aunt did my cousin a disservice by NOT teaching him this because she sheltered him so much.  
In my opinion, I don't think ANYTHING should be censored EXCEPT XXX movies and books.  I DON'T agree with Pornography NOR do I EVER think a child should get it in their hands.  This is the ONLY thing I think SHOULD be censored.  
My aunt, his mother, flipped OUT about him watching the movie and we had to turn it off!  Come on!
I often wonder if my cousin really KNEW what real life was like, if his future would have turned out differently than the way it did?  Now, after a long time in prison, he is out and working hard through a government job.  He is trying to make amends with his children and ex-wife.  He's having a very hard time.  I remember when he was in prison and his ex-wife would come to the family functions.  I had two younger children of my own at the time, and pretty much was a single parent at that time, as my 'then' husband traveled so much.  I 'could' relate to her, however, my husband 'would come home eventually'!  Hers was NOT.  Hers was behind bars, though, because of another woman.  
It often makes me wonder if my cousin had NOT been SO censored/sheltered, if his life would have turned out differently than it had.  Would he know right from wrong better?  Could he have mingled into Society better than he had?  Would he have been so easily influenced into doing such wrong things?  If everything had NOT been censored I honestly think he would have turned out differently.  Take his brother who came along 10 years later.  He was NOT censored at all.  He is a normal, ordinary, functioning person who CAN develop normal, good relationships with people.    
Could my cousin possibly have learned about things to prevent pregnancy?  He had two children before he was twenty and before prison.  He had NOTHING to do with them after awhile.  He got into SO much trouble.  He drank alcohol and took drugs a lot, crashed his car, and thankfully hit a tree and NOT people!  IF he had been exposed to all life has, like my kids have been, would all that not have happened?  I think it would NOT have happened!
My kids have never been censored against anything.  They WILL come across it in real life, and I would much rather they ask me about it rather than keep it secret until they don't know what to do with it once they do see or learn about it.  
I have two very well-rounded children who were NEVER sheltered/censored.  They have NOT committed crimes.  They take life as it comes.  They lead very good lives.  They are "Realists".  Neither one wears rose-colored glasses.  I NEVER wanted them to, which is exactly why I never stopped them from reading or seeing things that may not have been age appropriate.  I would, of course, be careful to make sure things were age appropriate, but once they were old enough, I was NOT sheltering them still!  They do know what is out there.  Had I sheltered them, there would be more of a desire in them to want to know what is out there in life.  I am happy with the decision to NOT censor what they watched on TV or read in books.  My children are Realists, and they know life is NOT a bowl of cherries.  You see, one day they WILL come across these things.  They KNOW what is and is NOT right!  Why put it off when they can learn from ME, their parent, which is the BEST way to learn?!  This is my position on censorship.
Another fact of censorship.  Children WANT to see what they are being denied them!  Parents' sometimes make the mistake of overreacting when things they want to censor their child from something that catches the attention of their child.  They WILL seek it out.  It will either be through a friend or someone else who is less than wanted in their lives.  They WILL show them.  
I feel it is right to let them learn as they come by things naturally.  I don't mean to put it down right in front of their noses.  I am talking about allowing life to flow, to go along as it is meant to be.  I have had no problems with this.  I DO have a problem when I have made a big deal out of something.  I have come across some things when my children were younger that I really didn't want them to see, or be a part of, however, most of it has been out of my control.  If I kept them away from it, or made a big deal out of it, this is when they really want to go all out to find out about what I didn't like about something!  Try that on your own children and I guarantee they will try to find what they are being denied them!  I say to take everything in stride.  
Banned books.  A LOT of these books used to be required reading in High School, and now they are being pulled from library shelves across America from angry mothers, usually.  Sorry, but it's true!  It's not often you find the Dad's involved in this.  Just stating a fact from my observations.  I have read these books.  The things in them happen.  Deal with it!  This IS real life!  Catcher in the Rye.  The Outsiders.  Heck, The House Without a Christmas Tree is BANNED because of '1' word in it!  The word is:  damned!  Come on!  What IS this?  I had that book and LOVED it when I was a kid!  I bought it through Scholastic Book Club in Elementary School!  They made a TV movie out of it!!!  So it's banned???
This is why I don't agree with Banning Books!  I NEVER caught the word 'damned' in the book!  Perhaps I didn't even know it was a swear word, as my parent's did NOT swear.  It had NO damaging effects on me!  
Life happens.  You cannot 'control' life.  Why fight it?  ALL people, children included, should know there are controversial subjects in life out there.  This helps to make children well-rounded adults.  If they don't know there are controversial subjects in life, what if they get into one of the controversial subjects?  I'm going to say it again, keep them away from it, you only tempt them to find out more about it.  
Another thing to ponder.  So were ALL these High School kids who DID read these Banned Books before they were banned, turn out bad?  I don't think ONE Banned Book caused many bad things to happen!  Most of the subjects in these Banned Books were about real life.  I don't believe any kids acted out because of them.  At least in newscasts or in the newspapers there were NO quotes that said "The Banned Book made me do it!!!"  LOL!  
Let's have an open mind, people!  PLEASE!  Most of these Banned Books are CLASSICS!  They have withstood the 'test of time'.  Doesn't 'that' tell you anything?  It tells me a LOT!  ALL Banned Books are NOT BAD books!  They are something ONE parent starts an uproar about, or does not like, tries to get others involved, then they work to get it 'banned'.  I DON'T agree with this.  I keep my opinion to myself, they should keep their opinion to themselves, keep it away from their children so MY children CAN read these books and get them out of the PUBLIC LIBRARY!  I want them to be able to, and everything will be fine, and we would NOT have this problem!  There are a LOT of things that many of us don't agree on.  The 'things' that stand the test of time are books.  Movies, TV shows are here today, gone tomorrow.  Books are with us forever.  Let's leave these authors who have had the strength to write these books on controversial subjects alone and let them spread their message the way they want to!  After all, it is an ammendment.    
In all seriousness, I believe children should NOT be censored in anything except what I mentioned above.  LIFE WILL HAPPEN!  YOU CANNOT STOP IT!!! 
LET'S CELEBRATE THE BANNED BOOKS WEEK!!!  ENJOY THIS WEEK!!!  I WILL!
Now go on over and enter my Giveaway!!!  http://lauriehere.blogspot.com/p/giveaways.html  Good Luck!!!


WINNERS OF PREVIOUS GIVEAWAYS:


**BACK TO THE BOOKS GIVEAWAY $20 AMAZON BOOK GIFT CARD:  To:  Temara Sheppard  Her Blog address is:  http://www.tamara-anythingandeverything.com
For this GIVEAWAY, I had 221 people do 2,310 entries!!!  WOW!! That was a RECORD!

**500 Followers:  Have not heard back YET, but it might be:  Karen Senoo and her Blog address is:  http://www.bookingpromos.blogspot.com

**Winner of the book:  "Fairer Than Morning" by Rosslyn Elliott is:  Malia Palea and her Blog address is:  http://www.livinthemommylife.blogspot.com

**Winner of the book:  "After the Party" by Lisa Jewel is:  Marci Clark.  She does NOT have a Blog, but, you CAN find her at Twitter! Her addy is @marciclark88

CONGRATULATIONS TO MY WINNERS!!!!!!!  AND, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS ENTERED THEM!!!