Image courtesy of alvernia.edu

It’s Banned Books Week, celebrating the freedom to read this September 22 – 28. Join us in examining censorship by taking the time to sift through some of the most highly contested books in American history.

Our friends at Powell’s Books have provided a shopping list of some of the most popularly challenged books. You’ll certainly notice some old favorites: The Giver, The Catcher in the Rye, Slaughter House Five, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Harry Potter just to name a few.

According to BannedBooksWeek.org here are the ten most challenged titles of 2012:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
   Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
3. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
   Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group
4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group
6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence
9. The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
10. Beloved, by Toni Morrison

    Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence