Banned Books
Feminist activist Gloria Steinem urged people to boycott this book because of its depiction of violence against women. Years later, her stepson Christian Bale starred in the movie adaptation of the book.
American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis) a. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-11-vw-6308-story.html
I hope everyone is wearing the titular clothing item of this book series, which has made the American Library Association’s Top Challenged Books list in 2018, 2013, 2012, 2005, 2004 and 2002.
Captain Underpants (Dav Pilkey) a. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
This California-enamored recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the Nobel Prize in Literature had one of his novels banned in North Carolina because the "book is full of filth” and “takes the Lord's name in vain and has all kinds of profanity in it."
John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men) a. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics
An attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.
Challenge
Process undertaken by some schools to rate books or to label books that have certain kinds of content.
Red flagging
Copies of this 1956 poem, which features the opening line, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,” were seized by the US government after being declared obscene. The courts later ruled the work was not obscene
Howl (Allen Ginsberg) Banned Books Week Program Kit: Trivia Night ©2019 Banned Books Week Coalition 8 a. http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100083370
Back in the mid-1990s, this children’s book featuring a hard-to-find wandering protagonist was banned in New York and Michigan for an image of a wardrobe malfunction.
Where’s Waldo (AKA Where’s Wally) (Martin Handford) a. https://theweek.com/articles/459795/17-americas-most-surprising-bannedbooks
The first rule of Banned Books Week is that we don’t talk about this author’s Stories You Can’t Unread.
Chuck Palahniuk (Make Something Up, Fight Club, Choke) https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=9273
Synonym for the verb censor that Merriam-Webster defines as “to cleanse of something morally harmful, offensive, or erroneous”
Expurgate
Author of the graphic novel that administrators in the Chicago Public School system tried to remove from classrooms and libraries in 2013.
Satrapi (Marjane)
The author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s also penned this 1966 true crime novel, which parents in California unsuccessfully attempted to bar a teacher from assigning in 2012.
In Cold Blood (Truman Capote) a. http://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/books/incoldblood.asp
A hit Netflix series is based on this book, which has been banned for discussing teen suicide.
Thirteen Reasons Why (Jay Asher) a. https://www.businessinsider.com/banned-books#dramawritten-and-illustrat ed-by-raina-telgemeier-5
This author’s banned story inspired a trilogy of movies that have a total run time of at least 558 minutes
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) a. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics
A reason why many graphic novels, including The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa, Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples, Habibi and Blankets by Craig Thompson, and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, have been challenged.
Nudity
At least three novels by this adventure-seeking journalist and novelist, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, have been challenged or banned
Hemingway (Ernest)
Parents attempted to ban this children’s book series from local libraries and schools. Author Barbara Park once said, “The first negative letter was from a grandmother in Minnesota who was annoyed that [the main character] had acted out and that she wasn’t using the Queen’s English.”
Junie B. Jones (Barbara Park) a. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/fashion/26junie.html?mcubz=0
AMC broadcasts a series based on this comic, which was banned in an Idaho school district despite a review committee’s recommendation that it stay on shelves.
The Walking Dead (Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard) a. http://cbldf.org/2019/07/cbldf-speaks-up-for-the-walking-dead-in-idaho/
Don’t get it twisted, this author speaks for herself when she says "Censorship is most often a reflection of the fears of the censors, their fears that they are not up to the task of having conversations about these hard things."
Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak, Twisted, and Shout) a. https://www.bustle.com/articles/11009-laurie-halse-anderson-on-speak-ce nsorship-and-the-impossible-knife-of-memory
A reason why The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie were challenged or banned in 2018.
Sexual references
A frequently challenged and banned autobiography by the author born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
This book made the American Library Association’s Top 10 challenged books in 2006, 2008, and 2011. But rumor has it, the TV adaptation of this book won 17 Teen Choice awards during its run.
Gossip Girl (Cecily von Ziegesar) a. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip_Girl
This book, authored by John Green and featuring our 49th state, was banned in Kentucky in 2016.
Looking for Alaska (John Green) a. http://www.bannedlibrary.com/podcast/2017/7/2/banned-100-looking-for-al aska-part-1
Not many authors have had novels, comics, and TV adaptations of their work challenged or banned, but this fantasist can claim the “honor,” especially after drawing the ire of the American Family Association’s One Million Moms, which boycotted Olive Garden in protest of the company’s support of a show centered on one of the writer’s creations.
Neil Giaman (The Sandman, American Gods, Good Omens, Lucifer, and Neverwhere) a. http://cbldf.org/2015/06/neil-gaiman-responds-to-one-million-moms-lucifershenanigans/
Type of speech that is not protected by the First Amendment.
Obscenity
Prize awarded to challenged and banned books Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Pulitzer (Prize in Fiction)