I am

I am a wife.

I am a mother. A homeschooling mother. And a public school mother.

I am God fearing.

I am a friend.

Those are the most important things to me. Next to these my greatest love in life is reading. I was reading newspapers at the age of four. My mother and grandmother would spell out entire conversations that they did not want me to hear when I was small. I was able to understand what they were spelling before I even started Kindergarten. I have a scar on my leg from when I was about eight and I was supposed to be asleep. I made a tent out of my blanket and put a lamp under it so I could continue to read. My mom walked in and scared me... the lamp fell onto my leg.... I now have an ugly scar. I will read anything. Seriously anything. I still have my favorite books from when I was a child. And I read them. My favorite book of all time is 'Little Black Sambo'. My great grandmother had it when I was little. I would make her read it to me over and over. It was given to me when she died. It is falling apart everywhere. A couple years ago I tried to find a replacement only to find out they no longer made the book because it was considered "racist". I was heartbroken.

Fast forward to this morning. I had forgotten completely about the discontinued book. I am working on my lesson plan for the month. In doing that I look up the holidays (official & un-official) for the month so we can use it as an opportunity to add to the basic stuff. It's one of the reasons I chose homeschooling. I like to think outside the box. In September (17th - 23rd) is Banned Books Week. As soon as I saw those words it was like....like.... I don't know. Like someone knocked the air out of me. The thought of all those books that are banned. It just breaks my heart. Someone poured their hearts and souls into these books. Some of them are even considered classic. I remember reading some of them as a class when I was in school. And now they are forbidden. Most books are banned for "religious" purposes. I will be the first to admit that I read books that some would feel are not "appropriate". Just because I read a book does not mean I agree with every part of it. A huge part of my love for reading is using my imagination. I love to read a story about something that I've never seen and deciding for myself how it looks, feels, sounds and smells. Each of these books were banned in a certain part of the US and not nationwide. Here are a few books on the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books: 2000-2009 list that shocked me...

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park

Really Junie B Jones? So this month I am going to read a few of these banned books. That is if I can find any of them... I may even read one with Ham for homeschooling.