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100 Most Challenged Books, Currently

 
 
Reply Sun 9 Oct, 2005 04:09 pm
Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

It is believed that for every challenge reported, four or five go unreported.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 2,519 • Replies: 20
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Amigo
 
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Reply Sun 9 Oct, 2005 04:16 pm
What is a challenged book?
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
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Reply Sun 9 Oct, 2005 04:22 pm
Groups decry the book's availability. They don't want us reading them.
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Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Sun 9 Oct, 2005 06:04 pm
I can see why some of these books would be objectionable to certain narrow-minded people. But what the objection is to others totally escapes me. As just one example, The Giver is on the recommended reading list in Boston Public Schools. A collegue of mine who teaches English uses it his 10th and 11th grade classes.
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Amigo
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 06:07 pm
edgarblythe wrote:
Groups decry the book's availability. They don't want us reading them.
Bastards!! Evil or Very Mad
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edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 07:14 pm
exactly.
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Acquiunk
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 07:57 pm
Re: 100 Most Challenged Books, Currently
edgarblythe wrote:

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

Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier



My Brother Sam is Dead was one of the most often challenged young adult books of the 1990's. It came in at about number 12 if I am correct.
Christopher Collier was the Connecticut State Historian, he is now retired.
He is an excellent historian and writer. Neither of those books give a simplistic account of American history but deal with decisions and their consequences, divided loyalties, and tragedy. I know Chris slightly and his academic publications better. It is both interesting and troubling there are people who would attempt to censor a young adult novel by a serious historian .
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CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 08:57 pm
On what grounds are they challenged?
Not bible-belt appropriate?

Wasn't "Lolita" (Nabokov) completely banned in the US?
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Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 09:47 pm
Never mind Lolita. At one time James Joyce's Ulysses was totally banned here. It took a lawsuit in Federal court to get that ban lifted so people returning from Europe wouldn't have to hide their copies of the book.
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edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 09:48 pm
I'm not sure if Lolita was totally banned or not. I was pretty young when I read it, so it didn't stay banned long. I read Tropic of Cancer and Lady Chatterly's Lover at the time the ban was lifted. Tropic is one of my favorite novels. I enjoyed Lady Chatterly for the most part, but felt my enthusiasm flagging by the end of the final chapter.
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Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 09:52 pm
Somewhere in the late 60s all the bans on literature previously deemed "obscene" were lifted, following some Supreme Court pronouncements. I recall the shock when "Fanny Hill" became available in paperback.
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edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 10:07 pm
Sade's books created a stir also, but, now that they are available, I don't know of anybody reading them.
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CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 10:15 pm
What about Erica Jong's book "Fear of Flying"?

Did it create a lot of stir?
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edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 10:20 pm
There was some shock, but a lot of jokes too, about fear of flying. I recall it was the subject of jokes on The Tonight Show, among others.
0 Replies
 
CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 10:32 pm
Yes, but her book described very explicit the many sexual
encounters she had, "Fear of Flying" was just the title of
the book.
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edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 10:39 pm
I knew that, but have never read it.
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SneakyBeaky
 
  1  
Reply Sat 15 Oct, 2005 11:18 pm
Funny how after briefly looking over those book titles, I recognized about 13 of them as being books I've had to read for school.

But I guess that's why most people complain about them? Who cares if they're out there, but if our children, of all things, are forced to read such material...

Because they're definitely not exposed to such things in real life?

Sheesh. Sometimes people baffle me. Actually, I take that back. A lot of times people baffle me.
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Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Sun 16 Oct, 2005 08:27 am
Calam, Fear of Flying was a runaway best-seller. Whatever shock it caused, there was no official reaction toward it. Since it obviously wasn't intended as reading material for school-age kids, no self-appointed vigilantes opposed it that I know of.
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CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Sun 16 Oct, 2005 09:03 am
Thank you Andrew. It never ceases to amaze me,
that a country can be so puritan and at the same time
be the leading nation for porn movies.
0 Replies
 
dupre
 
  1  
Reply Sun 16 Oct, 2005 10:57 am
I watched a film version of Lady Chatterly's Lover and missed the very end!

So ... does she meet up with him or does she stay?

Please ... what happened?
0 Replies
 
 

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