LeVar Burton Calls National Increase in Book Bans “Embarrassing”

Yesterday, LeVar Burton was interviewed at The View about his career and the impact of Reading Rainbow as well as discussing the new documentary Butterfly In the Sky. He discussed how the show was “counterintuitive” at the time, since television was seen as the antithesis of education, but he saw the potential to use technology to promote literature.

Joy Behar then asked Burton his opinion about an important aspect of the state of kids’ books today: “Over the last few years, there has been an ongoing push to ban important children’s book, especially about race, sexuality, and basically American history.”

He replied, “I’ll be absolutely candid and honest, it’s embarrassing that we are banning books in this country, in this culture, in this day and age. We have this aversion in this country to knowing about our past. And anything that is unpleasant, we don’t want to do deal with.”

Burton went on to advise, “So, read the books they’re banning. That’s where the good stuff is. If they don’t want you to read it, there’s a reason why.”

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.