Banned Books Week Ends - Remember Why It Exists

Today marks the end of Banned Books Week, an annual celebration of books and a reminder of why freedom to read diverse, fascinating, provocative books is imperative to us all.


Every year, parents, teachers and "concerned" citizens challenge the availability of books either in libraries or the school curriculum. In 2009, the following books were the most challenged. If you want to keep this issue alive, why not check one of these books out at the library?

  ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
   Reasons: nudity, sexually explicit, offensive language, drugs,
   and unsuited to age group

   And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
    Reasons: homosexuality

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

   To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
    Reasons: racism, offensive language, unsuited to age group
 


 Twilight (series), by Stephanie Meyer
 Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group



  Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
   Reasons: sexaully explicit, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

   


                    
   My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
   Reasons: sexism, homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group, drugs, suicide, violence

    
  The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn  Mackler
   Reasons: sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group


     
   The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
   Reasons: sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group


                              
   The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
   Reasons: nudity, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group


Or, check out the books most frequently challenged throughout the year here.

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. - Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas