Banned Books Week
September 26th through October 3rd is Banned Books Week and is dedicated to bringing awareness of ongoing censorship and promote freedom of speech.
Head over to BannedBooksWeek.org to get more information about how prevalent book banning and censorship really is and how you can help prevent it.
You will also find many events scheduled at your local library and book sellers if you would like to participate in your local community.
Here, for your perusal, is the list of 10 most challenged books:
- And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reason: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint,
and unsuited to age group - His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reason: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence - TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group - Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reason: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence - Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reason: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint,
sexually explicit, and violence - The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reason: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually
explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group - Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age
group - Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reason: homosexuality and unsuited to age group - The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reason: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group - Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reason: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group
Related posts:
No books have been banned in the USA for about a half a century. See “National Hogwash Week.”
No books have been banned on a national level, but many books are challenged and are banned (also known as removed) from specific school and public libraries. There are also people who purposefully go into libraries and deface books – such as blacking out nudity in art history books. Banned Book Week is designed to promote the awareness of all forms of censorship and to celebrate free speech.
Dan’s blog is specifically geared towards the promotion of applying local laws to libraries instead of using American Library Association guidelines – that is what usually ends up allowing books to be removed from local public libraries and schools. Libraries use ALA guidelines to help fight to keep books on the shelves when people like Dan want to remove them.
In the spirit of Banned Book Week, I approved Dan’s comment to be posted even though I don’t agree with it. If you wish to debate with Dan, you can do so at his blog – where I am happy to see him exercising his right to free speech.
@Insomnic
Thanks.
I note you said, “In the spirit of Banned Book Week, I approved Dan’s comment to be posted even though I don’t agree with it.” Note that a number of sources, including those of the ALA itself, are not approving my comments or are removing them. You have obviously understand the total hypocrisy in “banning” or “censoring” my comments on “banned” books during BBW. For that, I congratulate you.