Student Converts School Locker Into a Covert Lending Library for Banned Books

photo by Sarah Atwood

In an amazing Yahoo Answer, Kat Atredies (most likely a pseudonym) a student at a private school asks the question “Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school?”

Let me explain.

I go to a private school that is rather strict. Recently, the principal and school teacher council released a (very long) list of books we’re not allowed to read. I was absolutely appalled, because a large number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well… I did but not too much. Then (surprise!) a boy in my English class asked if he could borrow the book, because he heard it was very good AND it was banned! This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with the banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list. I took care only to bring the books with literary quality.

The books on her list include, but are not limited to, the following:

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Slaughterhouse-5
• Lord of the Flies
• Bridge to Terabithia
• Catch-22
• East of Eden
• The Brothers Grimm Unabridged Fairytales.
• Candide
• The Divine Comedy
• Paradise Lost
• The Godfather
• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
• Animal Farm

Kat is bravely ensuring that her fellow students have access to some very fine literature. She is also taking her librarian duties seriously by keeping a log book with due dates and even curating her collection: “Twilight is banned also, but I don’t want that polluting my library.”

via Neatorama