Literacy advocate, Star Trek star, and game show host LeVar Burton wants people, particularly children, to read banned books. The former Reading Rainbow host appeared during a segment about banned books on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. In the piece, Burton attempts to read some seemingly innocuous books only to get cut off because of a book banning for one contrived reason or another. Eventually, Burton runs away after hearing sirens nearby, but not before encouraging folks to read banned books “because that’s where the good stuff is.” You can watch the entire The Daily Show segment below.
The topic of banned books reached new heights when a Tennessee school district banned Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel , which chronicles the cartoonist’s father’s experiences in a concentration camp during the holocaust. Many have rallied against this movement, including author and CBLDF supporter Neil Gaiman, who wrote, “There’s only one kind of people who would vote to ban Maus, whatever they are calling themselves these days.”
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Burton has long championed reading, first to children on Reading Rainbow and more recently for adults via his podcast LeVar Burton Reads. Speaking to ComicBook.com in 2019, Burton shared what he hoped to achieve through the podcast, in which he reads short fiction by some of his favorite authors.
“If I had a mission statement for LeVar Burton Reads, it would be to remind the Reading Rainbow generation how important reading is in their lives, and their imaginations,” Burton says. “I guess more than anything else that’s the message that I want. I want people to engage with their imaginations, with these stories. Because, especially as adults now, you guys are adulting. I don’t want you to stop using your imaginations because you’re going to need them going forward. Because there’s a whole lot of shit we’re leaving for you to clean up. I’m sorry about that. I apologize, but I am trying to encourage some of the skills and talents you’re going to need going forward.”
Burton has also launched a book club and a recommendations series via Fable. “Stories have been a central part of my life since I was a child. They have the power to feed our imaginations and explore the very nature of our existence here on earth and beyond. Stories can even bring us closer together as human beings. For me, books are more than words strung together. They are portals into existences of every variety, stripe and hue; the universe and all there is, captured in the pages of good books!”, said Burton when announcing the partnership.
