National Banned Books Week

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

Books Banned at One Time or Another in the United States

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Blubber by Judy Blume

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

Carrie by Stephen King

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Christine by Stephen King

Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Cujo by Stephen King

Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen

Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite

Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

Decameron by Boccaccio

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Fallen Angels by Walter Myers

Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland

Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Forever by Judy Blume

Grendel by John Champlin Gardner

Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Have to Go by Robert Munsch

Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Impressions edited by Jack Booth

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein

Lysistrata by Aristophanes

More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

My House by Nikki Giovanni

My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara

Night Chills by Dean Koontz

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Ordinary People by Judith Guest

Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective

Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl

Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz

Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

Separate Peace by John Knowles

Silas Marner by George Eliot

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The ####### by John Jakes

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth

The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder

The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks

The Living Bible by William C. Bower

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman

The Pigman by Paul Zindel

The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders

The Shining by Stephen King

The Witches by Roald Dahl

The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder

Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff

Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

[peejay 327]

Some of these "bannings" need to be put into perspective. There is a time and a place for everything.

After all...should Hustler magazine be available at elementary school libraries? I'm sure there are some folks that think it should...but I don't. Likewise for "Heather Has Two Mommies".

There is a big difference between "community standards" and outright censorship. It is not always so "cut and dry".

[homesick_american 1]

Some of these "bannings" need to be put into perspective. There is a time and a place for everything.

After all...should Hustler magazine be available at elementary school libraries? I'm sure there are some folks that think it should...but I don't. Likewise for "Heather Has Two Mommies".

There is a big difference between "community standards" and outright censorship. It is not always so "cut and dry".

ITA. Few, if any, of these books were ever banned at the national level. They may have been banned in a state, in a city, by a particular school district, by certain public libraries, or by certain stores (such as Wal-Mart).

I read many of those books as a schoolgirl, and I grew up in what could widely be acknowledged as one of the most conservative large cities in the country in one of the Republican party's dead-lock states. (Dallas, Texas.) They stocked most 'controversial' books in my school's library, but they certainly didn't stock pornography, self-help books, or sex guides....appropriately enough!

[Reba 2]

just gotta love that William Shakespear has been banned in some places, and labouriously studied, to students chagrin, in others.

I'm happy to say that I've read quite a lot of those banned books. And plan to read more.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Some of these "bannings" need to be put into perspective. There is a time and a place for everything.

After all...should Hustler magazine be available at elementary school libraries? I'm sure there are some folks that think it should...but I don't. Likewise for "Heather Has Two Mommies".

There is a big difference between "community standards" and outright censorship. It is not always so "cut and dry".

Granted on Hustler, but for "Heather Has Two Mommies?" For what reason?

How about leaving it up to the individual parents? For so-called controversial books, have them kept behind the librarian counter and require that students get written consent from their parents in order to check the book out from the library. Here's an example...

Gays/justice: A Study of Ethics, Society, and Law by Richard D. Mohr

One of 55 books that parents in Fayetteville, Arkansas are petitioning to have removed from school libraries. The parents, who formed Parents Protecting the Minds of Children, object to the profane language and depictions of sexuality in many of the books and have accused the librarians and other opponents of their efforts of promoting a "homosexual agenda". PPMC objects to this book because it endorses stronger civil rights for gay people and opposes organized religion .

For more on the list...

http://www.abffe.org/bbw-booklist.htm

[Savanphil 3]

I never knew books could be banned.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

I never knew books could be banned.

Oh, banning of books is not-at-all uncommon. Most dictators are known for doing this; also, some countries ban publications by "enemy" authors (as example, works by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee were banned in Bangladesh--then East Pakistan--prior to 1971).

[UmmSqueakster 54]

I own 35 books on that list

[CarolineM 0]

I've read 20 of them yay!!

I mean, it's hard...Judy Blume's books are great but I read some of them WAY too early..(I was a book nerd)...

A Separate Peace?? That's an AWESOME book...

SO many of them are...this list surprises me. I assigned two of them to my HS students over the past few years.

I'm so cutting edge

[Jenn! 918]

Anyone remember on Family Ties when Jennifer Keaton stood up to the school board for banning books? She really wanted to read Huckleberry Finn, but due to all the book banning, she could only read the Yogi Berra story. I wish I could remember her speech protesting book banning, cuz I think it was really powerful or something. Ok, that's all.

ETA: I think Alex P. Keaton made a funny about how he's a republican in this episode. Maybe that'll help you remember it.

Edited September 25, 2006 by jenn3539

[Saddle Bronc 124]

27 that I've read all or parts of (I consider "Huckleberry Finn" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" as same book).

[Fuzzness 2]

ive read 8 of them and they were all great

[pedroh 21]

lawl.. the most stupid thing ever, to ban books.. banning culture always has a backlash, and the culture usually wins over stupid bigotry.. all those books there are wonderful, I wonder why banning canterbury tales, the decameron, or even aldous huxley, those are uber classics, that have survived bans, and will always be there.

[CarolineM 0]

Maybe it's actually genius. Kids want to do what the CANT do...ban smoking, they want to smoke, make it illegal to drink, they want to drink...

ban books....and they'll be running to find them to read them????

[pedroh 21]

Maybe it's actually genius. Kids want to do what the CANT do...ban smoking, they want to smoke, make it illegal to drink, they want to drink...

ban books....and they'll be running to find them to read them????

u know actually that's a good idea lol... telling them not to read them so they do it.. 'no son, dont ever read fahrenheit 451, it's not for kids'.. hehehe