Banned Books Week runs from September 24 through October 1. I pulled out an interesting book I have on banned books, 100 Banned Books by Nicholas Karolides. It looks as though a new edition of this book was just published in June. The book is divided into sections covering books that have been suppressed on political, religious, sexual, and social grounds. This is a nice little reference book--there is a description of each book, history of its censorship, and a small list of further readings.
This month's Pages magazine has a good article on book banning--but in this case the author censored his own work. Rather than let his novel go out of print, he made changes in the text to make it more palatable to parents who were concerned with some of its content. I am not sure how I feel about what he did, but I understand the argument he made. It is certainly a different perspective on the whole issue.
According to the article, the 10 most challenged books of 2004 were:
- The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (for sexual content, offensive language, religious viewpoint, being unsuited to age group, and violence)
- Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers (for racism, offensive language, and violence)
- Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture by Michael A. Bellesiles (for inaccuracy and political viewpoint)
- The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey (for offensive language and modeling bad behavior)
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (for homosexuality, sexual content, and offensive language)
- What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones (for sexual content and offensive language)
- In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (for nudity and offensive language)
- King & King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland (for homosexuality)
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (for racism, homosexuality, sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group)
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (for racism, offensive language, and violence)
I recently checked out Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War as I have never read it!! I think this is the perfect week to read it, so I plan on starting it before I go to bed! What banned book have you read lately?