Dangers of Censorship

As a book organized to promote the dangers of censorship, it makes sense that this is one of the most predominant themes in "Places I Never Meant to Be". Judy Blume's introduction, Censorship: A Personal View, begins by detailing some of her experiences with censorship. As a child, she was not allowed to check a book out from the library because it was on the restricted list. Censorship is defined as forbidding expression believed to threaten political, social or moral order, but Judy wonders what these words mean to writers, their chosen stories, readers and the books they choose to read. Though many of her books were challenged, Judy was not concerned since there was no organized effort to ban her books. The censors emerged in force after 1980, and parents were quick to jump on the bandwagon for fear of "exposing their children to ideas different...