Banned Book Week started yesterday.
For those of you who don’t know,
“Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community –- librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.” –American Library Association
Here at Lee & Low Books, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite banned/challenged titles (in no particular order).
-
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – banned for use of racial slurs and profanity.
- Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling – banned for depictions of witchcraft and wizardry/the occult.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – banned for racism, sexually explicit language, and profanity.
- The Kite Runner by Khaleid Hosseini– banned for depictions of homosexuality, profanity, religious viewpoints, and sexual content.
- Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective – banned for language and “promoting homosexuality.”
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck– banned for profanity and sexual references.
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’engle – banned for offensive language and use of magic.
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – banned for language.
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – banned for profanity, racial slurs, and “blasphemous language”,
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – banned for sexual content.
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – banned for drug usage, sexually explicit content and unsuited to age group
- Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene – banned for language and racism.
- The Giver by Lois Lowry – banned for “religious view point, suicide, unsuited to age group, and sexually explicit content.”
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – banned for “violence, sexually explicit content, and being unsuited to the age group.”
- Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich– banned for “drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, and religious viewpoint”
- The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler – banned for “offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group.”
Here are some other resources for Banned Book Week:
