So I COMPLETELY missed Banned Books week. I don’t know how that happened. I was going to post something each day – talk about books that I love that had been banned. It was gonna be great.
Instead, I did nothing. Figures, huh? In my defense it was a rough week. And now here we are at the end of Banned Books and I’ve said nothing. Since I don’t want it pass unnoticed, I’ll say this: Read Banned Books. Celebrate the freedom to read. Some of my best friends are Banned Books.
Here’s a list of the top banned books in 2011. The vast majority of them are YA which just goes to show you that people who ban books have no recollection of what being a teenager was really like. Nice to see To Kill a Mockingbird still on there, for “racism” of all things.
- ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group - The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group - The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence - My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group - Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint - Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit - What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit - Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit - To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism
Egads! Who are these people who ban books you ask? And terrifyingly enough the answer is anyone who thinks a book is offensive and wants to challenge it. According to the American Library Association parents are the most common source point for challenged books. Way to encourage reading, parents! The good news is that though anyone can challenge a book actually getting it banned is not as easy.
So now that I’ve missed Banned Books week let’s move onto Halloween Times which for me, will begin this evening at my house with saucy, noodle-y, cheesy goodness for dinner and then Rocky Horror Picture Show to kick off the Halloween season. Cross your fingers and hope my husband remembers to bring home a pumpkin.
Let’s do the Time Warp Again!
Ally Malinenko 
It’s odd that the idea that is a good idea to ban any book really…people need to challenge themselves to read difficult book sometimes! LOL Are you a Rocky Horror fan? I am as well go I watch it almost every Halloween 🙂
Challenge themselves, or and especially with parenting, let a complicated book open the door to a conversation about the world at large. Talk!
Yes! I love Rocky Horror though a last minute change threw Beetlejuice out there instead, which was also fantastic. Happy Halloween!