Monday, September 21, 2015

Next Week is "Banned Book Week"


Banned Book Week is September 27 - October 3. It's a good time to reflect on our Freedom to Read. It's also a good time to check out a few banned books to read.

But sometimes people want to push certain books off the shelves because they think the books are "too graphic" or the main character is homosexual and they don't want their children - or anybody else - to be "exposed to" that book. Even now, in the 21st Century, people and groups challenge books in an effort to get them removed from their children's classroom, a school library, a school system, a town library.

Lest you think classics and children's books are safe, here's a list of the books that were challenged, restricted, removed, or banned over the past year. You can find out more about these books here.

  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
  • The House of Night series, by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast
  • Chinese Handcuffs, by Chris Crutcher
  • The Miseducation of Cameron Post, by Emily M. Danforth
  • Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You, by Barthe DeClements  
  •  Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
  •  Hop on Pop: The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use, by Dr. Seuss
  • If I Ran the Zoo, by Dr. Seuss
  • An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green
  • The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
  • Looking for Alaska, by John Green
  • Paper Towns, by John Green
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
  • It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex & Sexual Health, by Robie H. Harris
  • Who’s in My Family?: All About Our Families (Let’s Talk About You and Me), by Robie H. Harris
  • Tintin in America, by HergĂ© [Georges Remi]
  • Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
  • Identical, by Ellen Hopkins
  • The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
  • Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
  • Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
  • Twilight series, by Stephanie Meyer
  • The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
  • Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
  • Madhorubhagan (One Part Woman), by Perumal Murugan
  • The White Swan Express: A Story about Adoption, by Jean Davies Okimoto and Elaine M. Aoki
  • Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult
  • And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
  • Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi
  • The Working Poor: Invisible in America, by David K. Shipler
  • The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
  • Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
  • The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls