Banned Book Week
 

Banned Books Week

Celebrate Your Freedom to Read September 20–27, 2003


The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000
1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14, The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47.Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

F READ OM to READ
 

I made three displays at my work of banned books from the book we had. Many of the students/faculty/staff/community members ahd no idea some things were so controversial. However my favorite part was one display had forty or so books, and the only ones I had not read were Harry Potter. Guess that makes my mind subversive and dangerous!

I also found people bought a lot more books as I used some selections from my Hispanic Heritage month display. Isabel Allende flew off the shelves.

Re: Banned Book Week
 

These kind of seem to be "no-brainers" to me.

Other than that, it's amazing how many of those books i either read or owned and really enjoyed. And i think i turned out pretty normal.

Kitso
KS 361 times i wondered exactly what a fried worm would taste like

I am suprized 1984 isn't on that list.

I wonder if Judy Blume and Toni Morrison get any joy from knowing that they are the most frequent contributors to this list! LOL

AlphaGam1019, Are these books that were challenged to be placed in public libraries or in public elementary/middle schools?

Between 1990 and 2000, of the 6,364 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom (see The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books):

1,607 were challenges to “sexually explicit” material (up 161 since 1999);
1,427 to material considered to use “offensive language”; (up 165 since 1999)
1,256 to material considered “unsuited to age group”; (up 89 since 1999)
842 to material with an “occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism,”; (up 69 since 1999)
737 to material considered to be “violent”; (up 107 since 1999)
515 to material with a homosexual theme or “promoting homosexuality,” (up 18 since 1999) and
419 to material “promoting a religious viewpoint.” (up 22 since 1999)
Other reasons for challenges included “nudity” (317 challenges, up 20 since 1999), “racism” (267 challenges, up 22 since 1999), “sex education” (224 challenges, up 7 since 1999), and “anti-family” (202 challenges, up 9 since 1999).

Please note that the number of challenges and the number of reasons for those challenges do not match, because works are often challenged on more than one ground.

Seventy-one percent of the challenges were to material in schools or school libraries.2 Another twenty-four percent were to material in public libraries (down two percent since 1999). Sixty percent of the challenges were brought by parents, fifteen percent by patrons, and nine percent by administrators, both down one percent since 1999).

1The Office for Intellectual Freedom does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges.

2Sometimes works are challenged in a school and school library.


for more info: check out this page ;)

Re: Banned Book Week
 

Where's Waldo? The book where you find waldo in a picture? How is that controversial?

This list really shocked me. I work in a used book store, and a LOT of these books are on the local school reading lists. It's amazing how groups can think so differently about the same subject...

-Nicole

Yeah. Blubber was really disturbing. I don't think it should have been published.:rolleyes:

Thanks for the list. Now that law school is over, I need some good things to read, and I guess the banned book list is as good a place to start as any!

I've read 28 of the books on that list and many of those were HUGE in shaping my childhood. Hello, Anastasia Krupnik? The Face on the Milk Carton? For the life of me, I still can't imagine why TFOTMC would be banned.

For anybody who's planning on using this list as suggested reading material :D, you have to read the Alice books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. They are far and beyond any other books I have ever read about growing up, and I read TONS as a kid. I started reading them when I was 8 and my sister started reading them when she was 11, and now we're 20 and 17 but we still get them from the bookstore whenever a new one comes out. PRN has written about everything from anorexia to child abuse to adolescent crushes to racism to embarassing moments and so much more in those books, and I don't think there's ANYTHING that she didn't handle well.

That list is ridiculous!!


The books that are sex related...some people need to get the stick up out of their a$$ and stop being prudes.

It's funny how some excellent books are so controversial and are banned, yet people can publish how to guide on homemade bombs and weapons, and people don't seem to mind.


ETA...(because I have more to say): I've read 13 books (not including the ones that are series because I've either read the entire series or most of them). This must be an American list because most of these books are available in libraries in Canadian schools and have never been looked at as controversial. A lot of these books are required reading, including Harry Potter in a course at my university.
I can't believe Margaret Atwood made that list. I read The Handmaid's Tale. It was a disturbing book, but it was excellent. Margaret Atwood is a famous Canadian author and her books are almost always required reading. I love her. I have read several of her books, and she's still writing. I can't imagine anyone here trying to ban her. It's shocking..SHOCKING this list.

Okay, I think I am done now.

Re: Banned Book Week
 

I don't think I'll ever get over how some of these titles were controversial to begin with. I mean if people didn't think certain books should have been published then just don't read them. I think it's as simple as that really. People think way too much about certain topics and don't realize that it's all a work of fiction. That's why there is always that disclaimer in the front of books and such that say all the works are purely fiction and it's only coincidental if they relate in any way to real life, although some are bound to be based on actual events.

Re: Banned Book Week
 

The top list are all books that I was required to read in a class, either in high school or in college. The bottom list are ones that I read as I was growing up, and think are books that everyone should read at least once in their lives! :o

Okay, so I read 12 out of the 100...not too bad for a self-proclaimed conformist :) :D

It's hard to believe that some of these books are on any "ban" list. There are a few on this list that I would not read, but that's just me.

Some People!
 

I've read around 30 of these books (not including the series ones) and I think I turned out alright! I agree with Sugar and Spice about "The Face on the Milk Carton"... WTH? Now, some of these books can be looked at in a different light, but the books that I've read are great!

Some people need to find better ways to spend their time than critizing a book's controversial content... If you don't like the title, don't read it... If you read the book and you don't like it, donate it to a local library and you'll never have to look at it again! :rolleyes:

Where's Waldo? is banned? What kind of crack pot society do we live in anyway? I've heard of some dumb isht before, but come on!!

Stuff like that is why I'm so angry.

And occiasionally I feel like I'm surrounded by morons. Only Nazis ban books.

The more I think about it, the more it bothers me. Where's Waldo? is banned!?!?!?! :confused: :mad: :(

This is proof our society is broken. Who??? What?? There is just no logic to this one at all. The whole series or just the first one? What is so contriversial about a guy in stripped shirt?

Did they come to school board meeting high?

Or are just plain stupid. Stupid people shouldn't vote.

Its things like this that make Americans move to Canada. Or anywhere. Really.

Can some one please explain the logic of that before I give myself an anyuserum.

Prob. the same people that hates the Teletubies. Maybe they're still pissed off about the Judas Priest lawsuit.

Why is this coutnry overrun by total dipshits?

I so agree with you! Just because some people have a problem with these books, doesn't mean that they have ban us from reading them. Don't read them, but at least, give me right to read them if I so choose!

The wrong kinds of books are being banned.


http://216.40.249.192/s/contrib/edoo...it_all_out.gif

How could they ban A Light In The Attic? That was a staple of my childhood! And A Wrinkle in Time???? WTF! They objected to Charles Wallace or something?

I read most of these (except for "Little Black Sambo" and Madonna's "Sex") Like others said before, many of them were required reading throughout various grades from grammar school thru my senior year.

Here's a piece of trivia for you.......

Two banned books you will never see on a "banned books list" even though they are banned from most schools in the USA:











The Judeo-Christian Bible

The Koran

;)

Is anyone else really upset by James and The Giant Peach? :(

-Rudey
--I knew a guy who'd let his peach hang out just to mess with people. He dropped out of cooking school last year I think.

I've seen A Light in the Attic on banned book lists before, and I think the reason quoted for its banning is that it "promotes disobedience to authority." :rolleyes: That could be a possible reason for A Wrinkle in Time to be banned, too, since Meg is a "bad girl" who doesn't get what's coming to her.

I looked up why Where's Waldo? is banned: someone is claiming that on one of the pages there is a topless sunbather. Hahahahaha. The Face on the Milk Carton was challenged for "inappropriate sexual content," which is what I was guessing -- because yeah, we all know that high school seniors and sophomores don't do anything except hold hands and kiss on the cheek. And one of the reasons the Anastasia books were banned was "underage drinking" -- remember how her dad used to let her sip the foam off of his beer before he drank it? :D

For those Canadians out there that are shocked at that list -- keep in mind that these books are rarely banned even here. Easily half of those books were required reading in some class in my school district or kept in the classrooms for students to read for fun: in the top twenty alone, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Chocolate War, Huck Finn, Of Mice and Men, Bridge to Terabithia, My Brother Sam is Dead (I HATED this book, by the way), Catcher in the Rye, and the Giver were all required reading.

I feel bad for any kids who attend schools that have banned these books, because they're missing out on some of the greatest kid lit heros of the past fifty years. Anastasia Krupnik, Alice from the Alice books, Janie from The Face on the Milk Carton, Margaret from Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, Scout Finch, Meg from A Wrinkle in Time -- I can't imagine how I would have turned out without some of these characters. And how many teenagers has Holden Caulfield made adolescent angst more bearable for?

I've read 21 of the books, seen the movies of at least 10 others. I don't believe in banning books (even the Bible or the Koran), but some books really should be read with some sort of discussion. Do you really think that the average 8-year-old who reads (for example) My Brother Sam Is Dead gets it without discussing it, or at least expressing the fears behind it?

they should ban/burn every book in existence.

Knowing how many guys are going to react to that... perhaps they should change the title to "Where's the Topless Sunbather?" :p

Yep, I remember Catcher in the Rye being required reading when I was in high school. I remember deliberately not telling my parents what we were reading that month in English - my super-conservative dad would have blown a gasket... :rolleyes:

I am. I don't know where people get the idea that this book should be banned. Bunch of balderdash!

Especially relgious ones. Those are the worst kind because they give people stupid ass ideas to ban good books. But we have movies now. Books are useless.

I have a professor that says, "Ban a book and enhance the readership!" This means if you ban a book, the more people who want to read it!

The same professor says, "It's so annoying when people want to protect ME by restricting what I read!" Humans (Free Will) + Freedom (Free Choices) = a Democracy.

Actually, I'm a big Madeleine L'Engle Fan (she wrote A Wrinkle in Time), and growing up I read the majority of her books, including much of her adult fiction and some non-fiction when I was in late middle and high school.

In one of her semi-autobiographical, semi-theological books (can't remember the title--something about silence or quiet--maybe A Circle of Quiet) she discusses people's reactions to A Wrinkle in Time.

She was disturbed that most kids seemed to "get" the book and really enjoy it. She viewed the book as very religious and moral and as a hymn of praise. However, a lot of adults freaked out because they thought the book was occult with time travel/space travel and that Ms. Who, Ms. Which, and Ms. Whatsit were witches. It was kinda the same "occult" labeling that Harry Potter gets. She was really sad that people reacted in that way to the book, but it's still continuing today.

In short, adults are stupid and kids are smart.

I agree. Some of the books are too mature or innappropriate for younger children, but that does not mean they should be banned.

That's so true. Remmember the PMRC debacle with explicit lyric stricker. It made some band more famous because they had the sticker. I wonder how Tipper Gore feel about enhancing 2 Live Crew's career, at least for a while.

I have read 23 books on that list! Guess I am corrupt! This list gives me a good summer 2004 reading list! Thanks Book Banners of America! It's made my life easier!

Arya: I remember the whole Tipper Gore thing! I mean if people didn't make such a big deal of things then it'd just die out and nobody would even care. Now that those people that have their panties in a wad bring everyone's attention to it, of course, anyone with any little bit of curiousity is going to check it out.

my brother sam is dead is my all time favorite book!!!

think about who usually calls for a book banning--ridiculously religious freaks who want god to save the world and not condemn us to a life of sin:rolleyes: whatever---if reading a book means i'm going to hell, then so be it!

I am a God-believing, Christian person but this book banning is ridiculous because I also believe every single person in the world was born with a free will. A free will that enables everybody the right to choose what's best for them, and if they want to read these books, then so be it. They're the ones with the free will and the ability to live with their own conscience, not that many of these books are bad or "evil".

I've read 71 of these books. I guess that makes me the most subversive soccer mom on my street!

A couple of things to keep in mind...

First of all, some of these books are banned in some schools but not others.

* "Banned" could mean that it was banned from a 6th grade mandatory reading list, but allowed to remain in the library for students to check out (such as with Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels ).

* Or maybe, that it was banned from a middle school library because it was deemed inappropriate, but still allowed to remain on-shelf in a district's high school libraries (such as Judy Blume's Forever, which I hated and would never put in my middle school library because it read like a sex manual with a whiny, flat main character, and I didn't see anything that would cause it to even be marginally appropriate for middle grades... high school kids is another reading and maturity level than 6th graders!)

* Or maybe, not because it has violence or sex or profanity, but because people think it doesn't portray a certain group of people correctly (such as a book with a wishy-washy gay character, or a book where African-Americans in African-American heaven are shown exclusively eating fried chicken and watermelon).

Not that I always agree, and not that I always disagree. But it isn't always the conservative religious people banning books.

That said, I've got my BBW display up:

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
14, The Giver by Lois Lowry
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Woo-- 37 out of 100! That's awesome. Not that I've read all of them... but they're on my school shelves. (There were another 4-5 that I can't remember whether we have...)