Censoring literature means censoring life"Everything that humanity has done, thought, earned or been: lies as if by magical conservation in the pages of books. They are the chosen possession of men." Thomas Carlyle spoke these words in the early 19th century. Two hundred years later, it seems we still don't understand the breadth and magnificence of the written word. Americans have forgotten the magical experiences that can be found in the pages of books. Instead of respecting men's chosen possession, they use it as a tool to achieve their own ends. If we lose respect for knowledge, we lose respect for ourselves; for, as Milton so eloquently wrote, "to kill a man is as much as to kill a good book." Despite First Amendment rights, censorship abounds in the United States. One of the most popular targets for censorship is literature. Of course, this is nothing new. As long as writers have published books, censorship has burned them. Maybe not always in a literal sense, but as author Ray Bradbury points out, “there is more than one way to burn a book” (545). Special interest groups, whether secular or religious, left or right, political or PTA, all feel the right to "burn" or otherwise delete, destroy, edit and censor material they deem subversive according to their specification agenda or belief. system. One of the genres that particularly falls within the often misleading focus of these groups is youth and adolescent literature. For myriad reasons, most of them based more on reactionary emotional ideals than actual facts, incredible books written for our nation's children are targeted, dissected, and then discarded like so much trash on the street. of paper....... 11 September 2001. Digital library and archive. October 1, 2001.http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/winter96/pubCONN.html#About AuthorHunt Steinle, Pamela. In Cold Fear: The Catcher In the Rye, censorship controversies and postwar American character. Columbus: Ohio State Press, 2000. Oboler, Eli M., ed. Censorship and education. New York: The H. W. Wilson Co., 1981. Reaves, Jessica. “Book ban hits roadblock: the First Amendment.” Time. September 20, 2000. October 1, 2001. www.time.com/time/education/articleTrelease, Jim. "Censorship and Children's Literature: Watchdogs or Mad Dogs?" Trelease on Reading.com. September 20, 2001.http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/censor_entry.htmlWest, Mark I. Trust Your Children: Voices Against Censorship in Children's Literature. New York: Neal Schuman Publishers, 1988.