Top 50 Banned Books!

[blondekosmic15]

 

Your thoughts ladies....

          

Harry Potter tops list of decade's most banned/challenged books

 

The wildly successfully Harry Potter series turned out to be the most challenged books in the last decade, according to the American Library Association.

This week the association released its last of the most challenged books of 2009, and then the decade. Yesterday I wrote about how the books in the "Twilight Saga" had joined the annual list of challenged books.

The most challenged books for 2009 were the four books in the "ttyl" series written by Lauren Myracle: "ttyl," "ttfn," "l8r," and "g8r." Reasons cited by those making the challenge were Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs.

What's a challenge? It is a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed or restricted because of content or appropriateness.

For nearly 20 years, the library association's Office for Intellectual Freedom has collected reports on book challenges. But the office believes that a majority of challenges go unreported and that its statistics reflect only 20-25 percent of the ones that are actually filed.

Topping the list for the years 2000-2009, on the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of the Decade, is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, frequently challenged for various issues including occult/Satanism and anti-family themes.

For the previous decade, from 1990-1999, the most challenged books were the "Scary Stories" series by Alvin Schwartz. Reasons cited for challenges were Occult/Satanism, Religious Viewpoint, Violence. But in the year 2009, these books dropped off the top 10 most challenged books.

Here are the top 50 books of the last decade, and you can find the rest at http://tinyurl.com/top100fcb.


Top 50 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

1 Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2 Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3 The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4 And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5 Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7 Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8 His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9 TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11 Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Meyers
12 It's Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13 Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15 The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16 Forever, by Judy Blume
17 The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18 Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19 Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20 King and King, by Linda de Haan
21 To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22 Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23 The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24 In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25 Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan
26 Beloved, by Toni Morrison
27 My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier
28 Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
29 The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
30 We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
31 What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
32 Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
33 Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
34 The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
35 Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison
36 Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
37 It's So Amazing, by Robie Harris
38 Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
39 Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
40 Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank
41 Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
42 The Fighting Ground, by Avi
43 Blubber, by Judy Blume
44 Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
45 Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly
46 Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
47 The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard
48 Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
50 The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/literature/harry-potter-decades-most-bann.html

[muslimah]

Anything Harry Potter has always been banned from my home.

[tericared]

 My thoughts? If some one does not like what a book has to say dont read it dont buy it......Banning a book because you {people in general} dont like what is written on the pages is wrong...

[Brysonsgrammy08]

Everyone has their own personal taste in reading material.  I agree, a book should not be banned just because someone doesn't like it.  There may be many people who will enjoy it.  I love to read and will read just about anything, just for fun or to be educated as to what others think.

[Almitra29]

Some of these I am shocked by, some of them are on my top ten list, and "To Kill a Mockingbird" give me a break, it's a wonderful story, just because a man kills himself because he is falsely accused of raping a girl? If your child is old enough to actually read this level, then they can learn the lesson. Of Mice and Men... what too TRUE? I actually own "Fallen Angels" but haven't read it, gonna start it today, gotta see what the hullabaloo is about. But seriously. If your child is smart enough to read these books, they are smart enough to learn from them too, now the ones that are just entertaining IE Harry potter and Diaper baby... Fine that's up to you if you don't want your kids to read it, but leave the library alone about it... sheesh, they are only mindless entertainment. (do you actually think your child is going to "turn to Satan" because they read some fiction about witches, wow, how little "faith" do you have in your kids?)

[getting_by_ok]

If I were an author, I would take my book being among these peers as a badge of honor. Generally the more people protest the more attention the protested item receives. 

[blondekosmic15]

When my son was in the 6th grade { 24 y/o now } he picked a book out of the School library to read for his bk. report not realizing the contents. He immediately shared w/ me what the story was about half way thru the bk. I don't recall the name of the bk. It was about a man who lived in the woods & he hated Indians. To make a long story short this man killed a pregnant Indian woman { he called her a squaw } & he removed her baby from her stomach. Needless to say I went to the School to complain but my efforts were in vain. They offered the freedom of speech issue as an excuse & the teacher didn't see anything wrong w/ the bk. Thankfully she transferred to another School but my son told me that when he was in Jr. High & High School the same bk. was in those libraries as well~

[MyLittleMan6405]

Quoting tericared:

 My thoughts? If some one does not like what a book has to say dont read it dont buy it......Banning a book because you {people in general} dont like what is written on the pages is wrong...

I agree! Banning (or burning) books is behaviour that puts us back a few centuries. I don't think anyone should have the right to ban a book just because they don't like it. Don't read it then and pay attention to and talk to your kids about the books they come across if it doesn't fit into your belief system. It's a great teaching opportunity! By the way - NOT bashing, just curious - what is so bad about Harry Potter that it would be banned? It is a make believe story, not an instruction manual for witchcraft. Again - NOT bashing, just wondering about the rationale behind all of that in peoples minds.

[SEEKEROFSHELLS]

 Go Ask Alice, was about a girl on drugs, and the life she led while she was on them and the struggle she had to get off of them. I think at the end they found her dead. Good book, did not glamorize drugs, and I read it in my teens.