By Molly Widmer

A few weeks ago at my school, I went to the library to check out a book by my favorite author. But as soon as I arrived, I stopped dead in my tracks. There, locked in the glass cases, were the fantasy books I was planning to read!

I ran straight to the school librarian, terribly mad, demanding to know how it happened. He told me that someone had sent a complaint to the school about fantasy books, so they were all locked up and would be taken away.

As soon as more students started arriving at school, I spread the news. Everyone was surprised and immediately went to talk to the librarian. By 8 o'clock that morning, the students were packed in the library, waiting to have their say.

That day at break, people started to put up posters that said, "Give our books back!" and, "What have books done to you?" Seeing all this, I put up posters and flyers to try to help, and repeatedly visited the crowded library to make my argument heard.

Finally, at the end of the week, the school gathered for an assembly. Most people just thought it was about the library fund-raiser -- a read-a-thon. But we thought wrong.

Half the student body, including me, brought posters and signs. We were stamping our feet and shouting. Even photographers from a newspaper were there.

Then the announcement came: The book ban was just a test.

A test?! I couldn't believe it. After hours spent making posters, talking to teachers and signing petitions, this was just some horrible joke?!

But as our librarian explained what happened, I felt better. It turned out that it was the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, and our librarian had banned fantasy books to help us understand how it felt to have our rights taken away. During the rest of the assembly, our librarian told us he was so proud of the way we had fought, and that he did this to show us how blessed we were to have the promise that in our school, books would never be taken away from us.

But I know that this is not the case in every school. I was amazed when I found out that books are banned frequently at schools all around the United States.

After a while, I started to realize the truth in what our librarian had said. We really are blessed to have freedom of choice. It is unfair to anyone to have the freedom of choice taken away.

This experience has taught me an important lesson that I want to share with people around me: Whoever and wherever you are, if your freedom of choice is jeopardized, don't sit and sulk. Get up and fight, take risks, don't be embarrassed! Just be true to yourself.

Molly Widmer is a sixth-grader at the Girls' Middle School in Mountain View, California. Walter Mayes, the school's librarian, is co-author -- with bookseller Valerie Lewis -- of Valerie & Walter's Best Books for Children (Avon Books). This piece originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 17, 2002, and is reprinted with permission of the author. The American Booksellers Association’s Bookselling This Week posted this piece on December 5, 2002.

We have our winners! We recently asked kids to send us their comments on the news story Where Did My Songs Go about efforts to censor 150 songs in the wake of the World Trade Center attack. All winners received a kidSPEAK t-shirt. Runner-ups received a Muggles for Harry Potter button. We will announce a new contest soon. Stay tuned! More>>

14-year old Laura, of Georgia, got mad when the Kjos Ministries attacked the Harry Potter books. She e-mailed the following protest.

I wrote this to a page that clearly disapproved Harry Potter. The website is http://www.crossroad.to I may sound harsh in the letter, but I think they needed that. I will keep you posted of any progress. Hopefully I made a change. I plan to go to other pages that go against Harry Potter and do the same.

You are truly wrong about your information on Harry Potter and Dungeon and Dragons. Let me tell you the down falls of your page:

1. You say Harry Potter books promote Satanism. It doesn't. Read the book. It is actually going against Satanism.

2. You also say that Professor Lupin is a shape-shifter. Well, he isn't. He is a Werewolf, and neither are bad. But of course you don't know that because you didn't read the books!!! Wow BIG SURPRISE!!!

3. You also say that Dungeon and Dragons are wrong. It is a role playing game... Keyword: ROLE PLAYING. Fake! Not real! Fiction! And as you quote: Fantasy World!

4. You ALWAYS use quotes from children. Children will be children, and all children have wild imaginations. Children are fascinated in magic because they wished it was true, but they know it's NOT real. That is the reason they are so fascinated in the subject. Why don't you just sit down and read the books from cover to cover with an open mind? Is that so hard?

5. To the Christian people out there, who says that your religion is correct? If someone said that to you in an e-mail or on the street, what would you do? The Wiccan religion is mainly for nature. They use herbs for healing, and use other natural material for GOOD uses. Keyword: GOOD. I am not saying that I believe in Wiccan religion, and I am not saying I believe in Christianity, but I am just stating the fact that I keep an open mind on ALL religious beliefs. And you obviously don't!!! Do not judge others on their religion. Do not go off saying that the Wiccan religion is wrong. Religion is one the main reasons we had war in the past, and we still have that problem in Ireland today. The bible says(I got this from a friend...a CHRISTIAN friend) to get rid of the evil within you before you get rid of the evil around you. Clearly you are so worried about others, it causes you to become a hypocrite on everything against YOUR religion. Have you ever thought of other people's religion, and how they feel when you are critizing them?

6. You turn around what readers and the books say. I bet that you are going to twist what I am saying right now, and say that I am for Satanism. Well, I am not. You don't give complete quotes, and you don't say if it is an evil character saying the words or not. If you don't give the whole truth, you are telling a lie. And from what your webpage tells me, you are Christian, and isn't telling a lie against one of the ten comandments. YES!!!! IT clearly states: "Thou shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

7. Well...actually...it's obvious that your whole website is wrong!!! Even Christian books have fiction in it! So I would advise you to change your statements on this website. Please get all information right or do not post it at all! Clearly, other people agree with me because there is a group called Muggles for Harry Potter(DO NOT...I repeat...DO NOT Twist this around!) that would agree with every word I say. Have you seen how I have done research on this subject? I noticed that you have not! I looked at it from your point of view and my point of view, and I don't understand how you can take fiction and non-fiction and twist it into evil and good....!!! The definition of fiction is: not true...fake...fantasy...ect. (NOT EVIL! As you believe to be true!) Thank you for your time. If you actually get to this point, I would be very surprised!!!

Laura

P.S. Again, I do apologize for such harshness in the above. When I stick up for something, I really speak my mind. I had help from my friend Julie, and I really do hope this helps out Harry Potter.

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