Delete Censorship

It’s that time of year again, to go and buy/check out/borrow your favorite banned book(s)! I was at my local Half Priced Books and they had this cool sign (seen to the right) reminding us that Banned Books Awareness Week is September 26th through October 3rd. Okay, so maybe “awareness” does sounds kinda weird, but it’s really interesting how many books have been banned! Ones that I would never think of! If you go to deletecensorship.org you can see the top 100 list. They include:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (series) – J.K. Rowling
Forever, Blubber, Deenie, Tiger Eye, Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret – Judy Blume (she is banned a lot!)
Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Goosebumps (series) R.L. Stine
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
A Light in the Attic – Shel Silverstein (I loved this one!)
Carrie – Stephen King
How to Eat Fried Worms – Thomas Rockwell
Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton

Of course, the list is huge, but these are ones that stand out to me. I had not realized how many times Judy Blume has been challenged!



Banned Books Week 2009 is the twenty-eighth annual celebration of the freedom to read. This freedom, not only to choose what we read, but also to select from a full array of possibilities, is firmly rooted in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. – Robert P. Doyle

Here’s another list:
The American Libraries Association’s top ten most challenged books of 2008:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

2. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, violence

3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R series by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

4. Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, violence

5. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, violence

6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group

7. Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality, unsuited to age group

9. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

10. Flashcards of My Life by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Hm, so now I am wondering what I should try reading…? I’ve actually read quite a bit of the older banned books, but only one from this updated 2008 top 10 list. Perhaps “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya? Or, I did keep seeing “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier on several other lists, perhaps I should take a look at that too. Actually, I am reading “Eclipse” by Stephenie Meyer, someone who is no stranger to the censored list. Okay, so the Twilight series isn’t exactly considered of a high literary standard, but screw it! It’s like candy, and while I read “Chimera” by John Barth, I want to enjoy some easy reading too!

Like I said, go out and read something! Could be a fun read, something naughty, silly or something classic…just read!! Oh and the deletecensorship.org site also has a kids section, you can take an interesting little quiz and and test your Censorship IQ!