Why was the book 'Nineteen Minutes' banned?

Answer 1

 Agreed! If you don't like it then don't read it. Plain and simple. I don't understand the point of banning books. It's just really stupid to me.

Answer 2

Book banning is wrong, if you don't like it DON'T READ IT.

Answer 3

i dont know why it was banned. It was a great book. If someone doesnt want to read "detailed s*x scenes" than they dont have to read it. It is a fictional book, its for entertainment. Im pretty sure that the author didnt write this to encourage people to shoot up schools, have s*x, and commit suicide.

Answer 4

Imagine being assigned to read a book with the f-word at least once a page, three pages full of graphic s*x, and a tone that promotes homicide and suicide. Some books are just full of potential. The novel Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult was one of those books. Was. Nineteen Minutes is the story of a school shooting that lasted nineteen minutes. The shooting happened at a small town high school in New Hampshire, in an event that turned the town upside-down. The shooting was a result of many long, hard years of violent, unbearable peer harassment and bullying to a boy named Peter. The novel is a sequence of flashbacks where you are taken back in time and into the lives of Peter, the shooter, and Josie, his former best friend who ditched him in middle school for the popular crowd.  As the story unfolds, the reason for the banning of the book becomes clear: descriptions of s*x, usage of foul language, and other R-rated content. These elements do in fact overshadow the potential that this book had, of what this book could have been. For these reasons, Nineteen minutes by Jodi Picoult should be banned from high schools due to encouragement of killing, explicit language, and sexually- explicit content.  
Nineteen Minutes, surprising, strongly promotes homicide and suicide, especially suicide. In fact the three main characters of the book are all suicidal, Josie, Peter, and Matt. Peter actually succeeds at committing suicides when he ends his life by stuffing a sock down his throat. Picoult portrays this as a happy scene where Peter is finally doing “what is meant to be”. This is all wrong- suicide is a very sad, selfish act, the worst act one could ever commit. Even to think about committing suicide is wrong. Here Picoult seems to be encouraging it, as if it is the best solution out there. This is not at all what should be read by high school students, some of which might be depressed and will read this only to give them a false hope to a deadly solution. Josie also comes very close to committing suicide through the swallowing of 30 pills, until she finally flushes them down the toilet for a reason unknown. This would have been a great point in the book for Picoult to discourage suicide and talk about the big turning point Josie has made by throwing away the pills but instead she dismisses the subject, only to seem as if the flushing was no big deal just as she discusses suicide as “no big deal”.
The book additionally promotes homicide with the slaying of 10 souls by Peter. Picoult does not sympathize with the deaths of these 10 but rather takes the side that it was just what had to be done. There is no mourning of the lost ones, no talk of the actual deaths. 10 are gone and Picoult does not consider that they will never walk, talk, breath, again but are simply gone, like it is nothing more than losing your keys for a day. This book could be full of pain and grief and discussions of what it feels like to lose someone and how much it hurts to know that someone intentionally took away your loved one. But instead, Picoult dismisses the idea that the killings were bad or negative and comes out on top that they were justified and the world will actually be a better place now. Killing is never justified and it is definitely never a good thing. Nineteen Minutes would only encourage a high school student in the same state of mind as Peter to shoot up his school.
Nineteen minutes is additionally full of profanity. The F-word, the “mother of all swear words” is used at least twice a page. “It got to the point where I got into the habit of saying it!” Reports Erica Kronenwetter, a student at Hempfield High School. Seeing a word over and over again makes it seem acceptable, especially when over half the time it is an adult saying it! Given the plot of the book, it would seem fitting for a few swear words to be placed in the story, but the F-word was not needed at all, and definitely not with the frequency it was placed. It became a nuisance seeing such an offensive word over and over again. Other profanity was used as well, although not in nearly as much frequency. Kids were also called names like fague and homo, without getting in trouble and without Picoult displaying the mental consequences of these names no kids like Peter. This only makes it seem acceptable and not harmful in today’s society.
Explicit s*x is also seen very often throughout Nineteen Minutes. Picoult describes each s*x seen very disgustingly accurately and graphically. Material like this should definitely not be acceptable among high school students or really anyone. Josie’s boyfriend, Matt, is always “inside her” and making love for all he’s worth. It is simply unacceptable for scenes like this to be in today’s teen books. Picoult is also encouraging s*x throughout the book. Josie remembers time after time what her mom told her: as long as there’s a condom, it will all be okay. Condoms are in fact, not a guaranteed safe-guard against pregnancy at all. Picoult also encourages s*x with the frequency that she discusses it in the book and the frequency that Josie and Matt have s*x. In addition, Alex, Josie’s Mom, and the police officer Pat begin to have frequent s*x towards the end of the book as well. If adults are doing it, then of course it is acceptable for kids to do it right? Absolutely not, but Picoult sadly portrays just the opposite.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult should be banned in high schools across the country for its suicide and homicide encouragement, profanity-rich pages, and graphic s*x scenes. Suicide is encouraged on many accounts through the three main characters especially, Josie, Peter, and Matt. Homicide is also encouraged as Picoult makes the shooting seem as if it was no big deal and actually even a good thing. The profanity in Nineteen Minutes is a little much and definitely could have been taken out to get the same effect. It seems to tell teens that bad words are acceptable. The s*x-explicit graphics are a little much too, definitely not needed to tell the same story. The disgusting scenes portray perverted pictures in a teens mind only to encourage him or her to go make love on their own. Though nineteen minutes began as a brilliant idea, it morphed into an unacceptable novel for anyone of any age to read. Banned in Beardesville Illinois, there is at least one community in this county that still has some decency and morals left in them. If we don’t want people to think of us as shallow, s*x-crazed Americans, then why do we have books like these in our libraries?

Answer 5

The book was banned due to the reference of school shootings. It gives insight to kids who are actually bullied an excuse to start a school shooting.