Banned Books Week

[rikibeth]

as seen on wolf_cat's journal



Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- I managed to miss this one in school.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume -- didn't read this one until after I started having sex, and I'm glad, because the protagonists are ninnyhammers.
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck -- the title is very familiar and I am pretty sure I read it but I am probably confusing it with three or four other books I HAD to read in junior high English.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell mind you, a lot of the recipes won't work, in dangerous ways.
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding -- managed to duck this one too, happily.
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen -- er, I *might* have read this, couldn't vouch for it one way or another.
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell -- now this one I don't get at ALL.
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (I agree with wolf_cat. This one was spooky. And I loooooved it.)
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Comments

Richard Wright's "Native Son"

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

Way the heck back in 1980, I worked with (and shared an office with) a guy who was trying to get Richard Wright's "Native Son" taken off his daughter's Required Reading list.

This man was not a racist, as many of the people who object to the book are. He was, however, somewhat squeamish, and he objected to the scene where the murder victim is chopped up and fed into a furnace.

That was it. Of all the inter-racial tensions, social commentary on the judicial system, and other flash-points which usually get this book banned, he objected to the graphic violence.

My daughter has read "Julie of the Wolves"; I can't fathom why it's on this list. I also have no idea why Shel Silverstein's "A Light in the Attic" is here, as this is the first book my younger daughter bought with her own money.

Re: Richard Wright's "Native Son"

[eternaleponine.livejournal.com]

My guess about Julie of the Wolves is that someone objected to the fact that Julie gets married off at, like, thirteen, and her husband attempts to force himself on her. (This being the impetus for her running off to live with the wolves, if I remember correctly. I read it probably 15 years ago...)

[actual-size.livejournal.com]

...ninnyhammers? Wow. I just fell in love with a word.

Feel free to avoid The Giver unless you're looking for something that will depress the living hell out of you.

[eternaleponine.livejournal.com]

No way! The Giver is AMAZING! Everyone should have to read it.

[actual-size.livejournal.com]

I didn't say it was bad. But you have to admit, it ain't exactly the Feel-Good Book o' the Year. It has its merits, but man, I wanted to slit my wrists after reading it.

[eternaleponine.livejournal.com]

No, it's not. But then, I tend to get annoyed with Sappy Happy Endings anyway. I love me some angst. Just ask rikibeth. ;-)

I would say read Messenger, which is a sequel... actually the third in a trilogy, with Gathering Blue in between... but it's not as good, and it's also depressing. But it answers some questions.

[actual-size.livejournal.com]

A trilogy! I would like to check that out. See, the thing is, I read The Giver years ago and I still have it. So I know it wasn't a bad book; it was just a downer, else I'd have ditched it by now. I'll look around for the other two and give the trilogy a shot. After which I might shoot myself, but what the hell.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

It still doesn't compare to Flowers for Algernon in the "Make the Reader Want to Give Up on Life" category.

[actual-size.livejournal.com]

Isn't literature fun?

[pookiegroupie.livejournal.com]

an awful lot of those were in my school library. all the judy blumes, to start with. (my mom, as a librarian, read and hated them, so i had to read them at school)