Banned Books

Books Banned Recently For Sexual Content
Books

Censored: Books Banned For Sexual Content

E.L. James may have kicked off her Fifty Shades of Grey book tour in Miami, but don't expect to see the erotic book in every Florida library.
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E.L. James may have kicked off her Fifty Shades of Grey book tour in Miami, but don't expect to see the erotic book in every Florida library. Librarians in Florida, as well as Georgia and Wisconsin, took the series off the shelves for being semi-pornographic and not so well received by critics.

While book banning may sound like a throwback to Victorian times, censoring books continues to flourish in 21st-century schools and libraries. What's most surprising is a book can be removed from a curriculum, reading list, or school library with the complaint of just one parent. Violence, racial themes, and the occult are commonly cited reasons, but an even more popular one is sexual content. Check out these 11 books that have been removed from schools and libraries in the last two years, and tell us if you think there's ever a good reason to ban a book.

Source: Flickr User wheelo50411

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian And Tango Makes Three Beloved The Bermudez Triangle How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents The Perks of Being a Wallflower The Tenth Circle
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Banned Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Books

The Hunger Games and 13 Other Frequently Challenged Sci-Fi Books

This month the American Library Association updated its list of frequently challenged books for the 2011 year, and one wildly popular novel is making its way up the rankings of this infamous list.
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This month the American Library Association updated its list of frequently challenged books for the 2011 year, and one wildly popular novel is making its way up the rankings of this infamous list. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, which first appeared at number five of Top 10 Most Frequently Challenged Books in 2010, is now third on the list for attempts to remove its contents from school curriculum and library bookshelves. The complaints against the books include text that is anti-ethnic and anti-family, insensitivity, offensive language, occult scenes, and violence.

Despite First Amendment protection, banning or attempting to challenge books has a long history, with many cases even making it to the US Supreme Court. As the American Library Association explains: "books usually are challenged with the best intentions—to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information." Science fiction and fantasy books often contain these themes that some find questionable, whether it's alien life forms, magical powers, or mystical worlds. In honor of Banned Books week, we're rounding up the most challenged science fiction and fantasy books according to the ALA. Browse the list below!

  • Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling — The stories of the wizarding world are seen by challengers to have occult and violent themes.
  • Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer — Its movie stars may provoke pandemonium, but critics of the book say it's too sexually explicit.
  • His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman — The series beginning with The Golden Compass is often decried for its anti-religious viewpoints.
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry — Despite the book's message of freedom of choice, criticisms are made for the fictional dystopia's bleak family outlook.
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley — Offensive language, racism, and insensitivity are often cited in challenges to the future dystopian novel.
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury — The tale of a future world where the printed word is banned and systemically burned was criticized for offensive language.
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle — Children's search through space and time for their vanished father is often challenged for the inclusion of supposed witches.

Follow the break for more challenged books of the last 20 years.

Children's Books That Have Been Banned Through the Years
Music and Books For Kids

Lock 'Em Up: The Stories Behind Eight Banned Kids' Books

Bad books? It's Banned Books Week, the annual celebration of the freedom of the written word and a campaign to highlight books that have been banned or challenged at some point — meaning some group or person decided that they are unsuitable for tots and should be removed from schools and libraries.
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Bad books? It's Banned Books Week, the annual celebration of the freedom of the written word and a campaign to highlight books that have been banned or challenged at some point — meaning some group or person decided that they are unsuitable for tots and should be removed from schools and libraries.

Keep reading for a sometimes surprising selection of books that were banned or challenged at some point. What do you think? Do you believe any of these books should be kept out of kids' hands altogether?

Bony-Legs A Light in the Attic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Sylvester and the Magic Pebble Captain Underpants And Tango Makes Three Little Red Riding Hood
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Kanye West's Banned Album Cover For My Beautiful Twisted Fantasy
Art

Should We Embrace Art That Makes Us Uncomfortable?

The planned cover art for Kanye West's new album My Beautiful Twisted Fantasy matches the title.
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The planned cover art for Kanye West's new album My Beautiful Twisted Fantasy matches the title. Unfortunately, the image described by Kanye as "me chilling on the couch with my phoenix" has been "banned in the USA!!"

Kanye's tweets on the topic admit that it's not official censorship, but commercial considerations keeping the frightening cover off shelves. He wishes today's sensibilities could mirror the 1970s, when "albums had actual nudity." But while retailers like Walmart worry Americans won't buy music packaged with such nudity, you bet Kanye knows that a controversy will help boost sales. So it's unclear whether Kanye's controversial cover is in conflict with commercialism, or in perfect harmony with the whole game.

Regardless of whether Kanye's cover represents true artistic expression, do you think Americans could be more open to non-mainstream art?

Banned Books Week Roundup
Books

Catch Up on Your Banned-Book Reading

As Banned Books Week reaches its final page today, let's look at all the books that have been taunted, bullied, and banished from library shelves, whole cities, and whatever else bans books.
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As Banned Books Week reaches its final page today, let's look at all the books that have been taunted, bullied, and banished from library shelves, whole cities, and whatever else bans books. Then, let's read them!


Source: Flickr User bethan

Banned Books Week: Should Books Ever Be Banned?
Books

Should Books Ever Be Banned?

It takes a lot for a book to be banned, but only a few complaints to get a bad rap.
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It takes a lot for a book to be banned, but only a few complaints to get a bad rap. Sexual content, racism, homosexuality, profanity, sexism, and religious viewpoints are all reasons books find their way onto the most-complained-about list.

Novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, which have sexist and racist themes, can convincingly plead historical significance, but sexual content, homosexuality, and profanity have a harder time. It can quickly become a political debate, usually with conservative parents fighting for library-shelf editing.

But liberal parents, accustomed to arguing to endless freedom of the press, have found themselves on another page the last few years. Twilight became the fifth most complained about book of 2009 because of its religious, abstinence-until-marriage message. The series got such a bad reputation that Cambridge University studied its effects on teens and found it discourages independent thinking and personal development, and the passive heroine Bella is a bad role model for teen girls.

Is there ever a good reason to ban a book, like its negative effects have been scientifically proven, or is the slope way too slippery for you?

California School Bans Dictionary For Oral Sex Definition
News

Say What? School on Banning Dictionary For Defining Oral Sex

"It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature."
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"It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature."

— Betti Cadmus, district spokesperson, for Southern California's Menifee Union School District discusses future plans after banning the 10th edition Merriam-Webster's dictionary. The district removed the dictionary from the fourth and fifth grades for defining "oral sex." It's defined as the "oral stimulation of genitals" in case you're wondering!

Source: Flickr User greeblie

The Banned Book Club: What Books Have Joined?
Books

The Banned Book Club: What Books Have Joined?

Though most book-ban inquiries remain hush hush, 9,600 requests to censor have been logged since 1990.
by CitizenSugar

Though most book-ban inquiries remain hush hush, 9,600 requests to censor have been logged since 1990. With the help of news and librarian reports, the American Library Association tracks what tawdry titles threaten to jump off bookshelves into children’s knapsacks. And now USA Today has made a fancy chart, sortable by title, author, reasons for challenge, location, and final decision.

Sexual content was the most oft-cited reason — 144 out of the 272 times — while the racially themed, vulgarly worded, and violently depicted were other chart toppers. Someone even tried to remove the dictionary!

So what aren't we reading? To see some of the most well-known titles and why they were banned, read more