Ever Read a Forbidden Book as a Child?

[Taylor Razzani]

I don't remember the name of the book or the exact plot, I just remember it involved a girl turning into a black panther for some reason (it wasn't Animorphs) and I'm guessing it involved gory and/or sex scenes. It was the only book my parents refused to let me read, so I had to read it on the sly and hide it in between reads.

[thisisjd89]

My family was very strict in what they would let me read. But our library at the time was only a block and a half away so they would let me go by myself. Ended up picking up a Stephen King novel up when I was about 8 and been a fan since.

[moderntimes]

Such a difference. My folks let me read anything I wanted, zero restrictions.

[Kaitlyn12]

I was always allowed to read what I wanted. I don't think there was ever a book that my mom forbid me to read.

[aparsons]

I wasn't allowed to read novels with more adult content when I was younger. My mom liked to restrict what we read.

[Anjareis]

This question really dredged up a memory for me. Yes, I read a forbidden book when I was 12 or 13. The title was Missing Person: The True Story of a Police Case Resolved by the Clairvoyant Powers of Dorothy Allison by Robert V. Cox and Kenneth L. Peiffer, Jr. It was the story of the abduction, rape, and murder of an eighteen-year-old woman in a town about an hour's drive from where we lived in Pennsylvania and how the woman's parents reached out to a clairvoyant in New Jersey who gave police their first clues in finding and apprehending the perpetrators. Someone had given the book to my dad to read. He laid it on his bedside table and gave me severe instructions not to read it. Really? What did he expect? He had to have known that I disobeyed him, but he never said one word to me about it.

[Kia]

The only time I ever did something like this was when I was a young teenager and was starting to be interested in adult romance novels. My mom wasn't sure I was ready for them, and since most are basically written porn I can now understand her hesitation. But she used to have a stack of them on her bedside table and I would sneak one, read it for the hour and and half or so after school before she got home and write the page number down somewhere because a bookmark would give me away! Well she came home early one day and I was totally busted. She did let me read them after that though.

[moderntimes]

Not only did my parents not forbid me to read certain books, they encouraged me to read whatever I wanted, zero restrictions.

Funny, years later, when my stepson was in Junior High, he had to get his parental approval to write a book review of a "chancy" book, guess what, Catcher in the Rye.

We sent a letter to his principal / teachers that he had our permission to read any book he chose. We got a phone call from the asst. principal, asking "Any book?" and I told her "Any book, no restrictions." Our boy was so proud of us afterward.

[BarryEM]

Same for me. Both my parents never censored my reading choices. At school of course there were restrictions on what we could bring to school and read as well as what books were assigned.

When I was admonished by a teacher for bringing a copy of Edgar Rice Burroughs' (creator of Tarzan) Princess of Mars, because the flashy cover art displayed a slightly scantily clad Princess under attack by a monster, I complained to my Dad. He didn't challenge the teacher but he told me that some other kids in my class were perhaps a little backward, and might be upset or confused by this, and that maybe I ought to keep that book at home.

I was fortunate that my parents encouraged me to read anything and everything. For the most part I read the same books they read even as a child. The first book I ever read all the way through was Burroughs "Tarzan the Ape Man".

Anyway as a young teen I always had my current paperback in my back pocket everywhere I went and one day that book was "Peyton Place". I must have been 16 then since that's when it was published. Anyway a teacher saw it in my back pocket and recognized it and sent me to the principal's office. He sent me home and said I could come back after my parents come talk to him.

The next morning my Dad took me to school and told the principal that what I read was none of his business and that h was glad I was reading such things. They argued and the upshot was that I got back into school but I was no longer allowed to have books in my hip pocket at school.

I doubt anyone would care in that way about a book like "Peyton Place" today but for those of you too young to remember, it suffered from a terrible reputation and was usually considered close to pornography, mostly by those who hadn't read it. I've read it about every 5 or so years ever since. What they all overlooked was that it was a beautifully written story. It just might be the great American novel.

The book had no explicit sex and no "bad" words. I've never really understood the reason for it's reputation. But forbidden it was.

Barry

[Scerakor]

I went to my High-school librarian before the summer break started and took out a pile of books on her recommendations. Before I dove into that pile, my mom quickly flipped through them in order to ensure their "appropriateness". I remember clearly here vetoing a few of them (I never asked what for). After that, I had a small victory whenever I came across anything that I thought she must have "missed" and that was probably taboo!

[Dh_]

I never had any restrictions when it came to reading, but maybe I should have. The library in my elementary school had a couple of Young Adult books and, while I was mature enough to enjoy them at the ages of 9 and 10, there were certain parts that were inappropriate for that age. I never mentioned it, though, and only realized years later that my parents wouldn't have approved.

[Rebeccaej]

The only book I wasn't allowed to read when I was little was Hannibal. I can't remember how old I was at the time, but I'd seen the movie Silence of the Lambs.