Banned Books Week Day 4: Of Seuss and Silverstein

Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. Two of the great poets of childhood. Most of us can recite parts of our favorite Dr. Seuss books or a handful of Silverstein verses.

A few days ago, I changed my profile picture on Facebook to a photo of my toddler holding a book by a frequently-challenged author, with the caption “Mommy lets me read banned books!”

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“Why is ‘Hop on Pop’ banned?” a friend asked in the comments. Why, indeed.

“Hop on Pop” and “The Cat in the Hat” both have come up against challenges - because they apparently encourage children to misbehave. Likewise, there are similar reasons for challenging Shel Silverstein’s poems - you can read about those here: https://www.iveyink.com/blog/2017/9/29/life-aint-easy-for-a-boy-named-shel

#BannedBooksWeek2020