posted September 20, 2004 10:59 PM              

What are your opnions about the bannings of these certain books? Do you think it's justified, or do you think it's ridiculous? I'm curious to see what you guys think =).

All I have to say is: Why Where's Waldo? Did some kid have a traumatic experience not finding Waldo when he was a kid? *is befuddled* *likes the word beffffuddled*.

posted September 22, 2004 08:53 AM            

I've read almost all of those books, most of them when I was in school. I can't beleive they are that controversial, I don't remember feeling I was reading something I shouldn't have....

Books, especially ones that evoke something and make the reader think, should not be banned by schools. I agree with Isis, it's more the parents discretion than that of the school system. But that raises a whole nother can of worms for schools, I would imagine. With the state of the judicial system, I wouldn't be surprised if banning these books is more about protecting themselves from sue-happy parents then protecting the children...

Thanks for the link, I haven't thought of a lot of those books in a long time!!

posted September 22, 2004 11:22 AM              

I would like to add though, The Harry Potter books have NOT been banned at my kids' school.... not yet anyhow

posted September 22, 2004 02:23 PM            

I don't see books like The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell or Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler on this list on the top 100, which I think that can be completely understandable!

Here's the complete list of banned books in America:

A-B
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
The Arabian Nights
Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
The Banditti of the Plains by A. S. Mercer
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
Blubber by Judy Blume
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Brimstone and Treacle by Dennis Potter (BBC television version banned by the BBC)
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
[edit]
C-D
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce
Candide by Voltaire
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
The Case for India by Will Durant
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Decameron by Boccaccio
Deenie by Judy Blume
Did Six Million Really Die? by Ernst Zündel
Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Dubliners by James Joyce
[edit]
E-G
Earth's Children (series) by Jean M. Auel
E for Ecstasy by Nicholas Saunders
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Fade by Robert Cormier
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
Family Limitation by Margaret Sanger
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Fanny Hill by John Cleland
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
The Goats by Brock Cole
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Goosebumps (series) by R.L. Stine
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Guess What? by Mem Fox
[edit]
H-L
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Howl by Allen Ginsberg
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Jack by A.M. Homes
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Jerusalem Delivered by Tasso
Jenny lives with Eric and Martin by Susanne Bösche
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Love by Toni Morrison
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
[edit]
M-R
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Magnum Crimen by Viktor Novak
The Making of a Godol by Nathan Kamenetsky
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović Njegoš
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Native Son by Richard Wright
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Private Parts by Howard Stern
The Provincial Letters by Blaise Pascal
The Qu'ran: The Early Revelations by Michael Anthony Sells
The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
[edit]
S-Z
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Sex by Madonna
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
Sexual Revolution in South Africa: The Pink Agenda: The Ruin of the Family by Christine McCafferty and Peter Hammond
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Spycatcher by Peter Wright
The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
The Stupids (series) by Harry Allard
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green
Teleny, sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde
The Terrorist by Caroline B. Cooney
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Ulysses by James Joyce
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
What's Happening to My Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
[edit]
ALA List
The American Library Association periodically releases a list of the most challenged books in libraries in the United States, of the challenges reported to the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. The following list details the 100 most challenged books the years 1990-2000, during which some 6,300 challenges were reported to the ALA.

posted September 23, 2004 02:09 AM              

Next on the list:
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

...because it discusses menstration... and GOD is in the title... so that must somehow be dirty.