celebrating the end of banned books week

According to Yahoo – the following books are all banned, but also still frequently searched on the internet. How many have you read? I’ve read 18 of the below 25. I’ve not read numbers 8, 11, 14, 15, 20, 22, 24.

It’s funny that books are still considered so powerful. And they are. People who read are in terrible danger of such threats as mind-expansion, horizon-broadening, and exposure to new thoughts.

All very scary stuff. So – peruse the list. Visit The American Library Association. Read a book – a banned book, a non-banned book. (I myself just finished “The Blind Assassin” and I highly recommend it. Thanks E)

  1. Harry Potter (Series) (J.K. Rowling)
  2. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
  3. The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
  4. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
  5. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
  6. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
  7. Goosebumps (Series) (R.L. Stine)
  8. How to Eat Fried Worms (Thomas Rockwell)
  9. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
  10. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
  11. The Giver (Lois Lowry)
  12. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
  13. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
  14. Captain Underpants (Dav Pilkey)
  15. The Anarchist Cookbook (William Powell)
  16. Carrie (Stephen King)
  17. Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)
  18. The Dead Zone (Stephen King)
  19. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
  20. Go Ask Alice (anonymous)
  21. American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis)
  22. The Chocolate War (Robert Cormier)
  23. James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl)
  24. The Pigman (Paul Zindel)
  25. A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle)

Comments

Bradley said,

I’ve read quite a few of these as well, including two of my favorite Toni Morrison books – it’s insane, a lot of these are classics by my accounts. I can’t believe something like “To Kill A Mockingbird” or particularly something like the “a girls guide..” “boys guide” would be deemed inappropriate – it’s probably by the very parents who won’t talk to their kids about their changing bodies and thus makes those kids the ones who really need the books.. ugh! Some people are insane. By the way I think I’m going to start reading the books on the banned or “challenged list that I haven’t read – I want to start with Maya Angelou…why would she be banned?? Censorship confuses me so much

E said,

You need to read How to Eat Fried Worms. It’s pretty fantastic.

I’m going to this tomorrow: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/ I’m pretty excited, even though it means being in close proximity to Laura Bush..

Nancy said,

notice how many of those books are “children’s books. When they most need their minds expanded, people are trying to close them up. Instead of not letting them have ideas, how about sitting down with them after you have BOTH read the book and talking about what you find objectionable about it, and why. Then listen to their ideas on it. No, I guess that would be acting too much like a thinking being instead of a rigid dummy. (oh, sorry, did I say that out loud?)

Follow me on social!