Celebrating the Freedom To Read!
It's Banned Book Week 2010. What is on your reading list?
Below are two lists of the most frequently challenged books - I have highlighted the books I have read in purple. What books have you read?
Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2009
Out of 460 challenges as reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom
1. “TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality
3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi PicoultReasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert CormierReasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
Top 20 Most Challenged/Banned Classics:
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Other commonly banned and challenged books:
LINKS:
Kids Right To Read Project (KRRP)
Simon and Schuster
American Library Association (ALA)
Library Bill of Rights
National Coalition of Teachers of English
PEN American Center - Right to Write
List of Challenges - prepare yourself
National Coalition Against Censorship
. 
4 comments:
In defense of Harry Potter being on the list, it is about sorcery which comes from the dark powers of Satan, and almost every child who has ever read it now worships the devil.
;)
I've only read two of the top 10 from 2009 and 8 of the top classics! I'd seen many of them before, but Charlotte's Web?? Why??
Doug - You make me laugh!
Erin - Why indeed! Charlotte's Web was the first "real" book my son read, and I can't for the life of me figure out what could have been wrong with it. If I found it fine for my 5 year old to read, it's fine for everyone. (Re-read the first line, though, it's one of my favorite first lines in all of literature!!)
Charlotte's Web: talking animals = magic = devil
You people need to think these things through one extra step.
:)
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