The Masters Review Blog

Sep 23

Banned Books Week

BBWLogoImage 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

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