So then not actaully banned, only removed from schools by some states. But as it is available online I am sure any parents wishing to give their kids the book can do so by just buying it. Like the no doubt countless thousands of other books not provided by the US school system then

The book was & is offensive to black people, that is why black groups, run by black people wanted it removed. Not white psudeo intellectuals as claimed with the usual hyperbole. But as it available to buy then I can't see the big problem for those who do find it an essential part of their childs reading material.

He's too busy polishing the new Medal of Freedom his mate Bushy just gave him.

Little Johnny Howard is to get one also!

Who?.....

Yes, I had forgotten him too, thank god. But a couple of days ago, while enjoying the cricket coverage, he suddenly loomed large in my living room. They did an interview with him at the SCG.

I had to turn off for a while.

I'd have thrown a bottle at the screen.

Speaking of throwing bottles at the screen, how's the Weagles looking this year?

Or still rebuilding?

So then not actaully banned, only removed from schools by some states. But as it is available online I am sure any parents wishing to give their kids the book can do so by just buying it. Like the no doubt countless thousands of other books not provided by the US school system then

The book was & is offensive to black people, that is why black groups, run by black people wanted it removed. Not white psudeo intellectuals as claimed with the usual hyperbole. But as it available to buy then I can't see the big problem for those who do find it an essential part of their childs reading material.

Banned from libraries and schools is banned according to the American Library Association and many teachers, educators and librarians have complained for many years and in the strongest terms. We are supposed to have freedom of the press in America and that means that books should be in libraries where people have free access to them. The banned book list could also be a list of the best books available.

About all these black groups who have asked that books be banned that are offensive to black people, could you provide an example please?

More banned books. See how many you agree with:

Banned Books Listed by Title

The details listed below are excerpts taken from the Banned Books Resource Guide by the American Library Association, and Ready Reference Censorship, Copyright 1997, Salem Press (ed. Lawrence Amey et al.). In some cases, my own pithy comments have been added.

Title: 1984 ~ A ~ B ~ C ~ D ~ E ~ F ~ G ~ H ~ I ~ J ~ K ~ L ~ M ~ O ~ P ~ R ~ S ~ T ~ U ~ V ~ W ~ Z

1984

1984 . George Orwell. Harcourt. Challenged in the Jackson County, Fla. (1981) because the novel is "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter." Big Brother doesn't want people reading such things. (Purchase)

A

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain [samuel L. Clemens]. Airmont; And/Or Press; Bantam; Grosset; Longman; NAL; Pocket Bks. Excluded from the childrens' room in the Brooklyn, N.Y. Public Library (1876) and the Denver, Colo. Public Library (1876). Confiscated at the USSR border (1930). Removed from the seventh grade curriculum in the West Chester, Pa. schools (1994) after parents complained that it is too full of racially charged language. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a more popular target of censorship, but personally I find this one more entertaining. (Purchase Tom Sawyer) (Purchase Huckleberry Finn)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll. Ace; Bantam; Crown; Delacorte; Dover; NAL; Norton; Penguin; Random; St. Martin. Banned in China (1931) for portraying animals and humans on the same level, "Animals should not use human language." (Purchase)

Analects. Confucius. Dover; Random. The first ruler of the Chin Dynasty ordered all books relating to the teachings of Confucius burned. Oh, and he had hundreds of followers of Confucius buried alive (250 BC). (Purchase)

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne Frank. Modern Library. Challenged in Wise County, Va. (1982) due to "sexually offensive" passages. Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee (1983) called for the rejection of this book because it is a "real downer." (Purchase)

Arabian Nights or The Thousand and One Nights. Anonymous. U.S. Customs held up 500 sets of the translation by the French scholar Mardrus, which were imported from England (1927-31). It was confiscated in Cairo, Egypt (1985), on the grounds that it contained obscene passages which posed a threat to the country's moral fabric. It was judged inappropriate for Jewish pupils by the Israeli director of the British Consul Library in Jerusalem, Israel (1985). Nice to see that the Arabs and Israelis can agree, after all. (Purchase)

B

Beloved. Toni Morrison. Knopf; NAL. Challenged at the St. Johns County Schools in St. Augustine, Fla. (1995). Challenged by a member of the Madawaska, Maine School Committee (1997) because of the book's language. This 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning novel has been required reading for the advanced placement English class for six years. (Purchase)

The Bible. William Tyndale, who partially completed translating the Bible into English, was captured, strangled, and burned at the stake (1536) by opponents of the movement to translate the bible into the vernacular. Beginning around 1830, "family friendly" bibles, including Noah Webster's version (1833) began to appear which had excised passages considered to be indelicate. (Purchase the King James version) (Purchase the Revised Standard Catholic version)

Brave New World. Aldous Huxley. Harper. Banned in Ireland (1932). Removed from classroom in Miller, Mo. (1980). Challenged at the Yukon, Okla. High School (1988); challenged as required reading in the Corona-Norco, Calif. Unified School District (1993) because the book "centered around negative activity." (Purchase)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Dee Brown. Holt. Removed in Wild Rose, Wis. (1974) by a district administrator for being "slanted." The administrator also said "if there's a possibility that something might be controversial, then why not eliminate it." (Purchase)

C

The Call of the Wild. Jack London. Ace; Bantam; Grosset; Macmillan; NAL; Penguin; Pocket Bks.; Raintree; Tempo. Banned in Italy (1929), Yugoslavia (1929), and burned in Nazi bonfires (1932). Who knew Nazis didn't like sled dogs? (Purchase)

Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer. Bantam; Bobbs-Merrill; Doubleday; Penguin; Raintree Pubs.; NAL; Univ. of Okla. Pr. People have long been squeamish with this one...It was subjected to revisions as 1928, and editions today tend to avoid four letter words. It was removed from a senior college preparatory literature course at the Eureka, Ill. High School (1995) for sexual content. I believe Chaucer would be amused. (Purchase The Riverside Chaucer, complete and untranslated) (Purchase The Canterbury Tales translated)

Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger. Published in 1951, this immediate best seller almost simultaneously became a popular target of censorship. A 1991-92 study by the People for the American Way found that the novel was among those most likely to be censored based on the fact that it is "anti-Christian." Challenged by Concerned Citizens of Florida who wanted the book removed from a high school library (1991) in Leesburg, Florida due to "profanity, reference to suicide, vulgarity, disrespect, and anti-Christian sentiments." They were unsucessful: a review committee voted unanimously to retain the book. (Purchase)

The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. Vito Russo. Harper. Challenged at the Deschutes County Library in Bend, Oreg. (1993) because it "encourages and condones" homosexuality. (Purchase)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl. Bantam; Knopf; Penguin. Removed from a locked reference collection at the Boulder, Colo. Public Library (1988), where it had been placed because the librarian thought the book espoused a poor philosophy of life. (Purchase)

Clan of the Cave Bear. Jean Auel. Coronet. Challenged at the Berrien Springs, Mich. High School for its use in classrooms and libraries (1988), Banned from the Cascade Middle School library in Eugene, Oreg. (1992), Challenged, but retained on the Moorpark High School recommended reading list in Simi Valley, Calif. (1993), despite objections that it contains "hardcore graphic sexual content." (Purchase)

The Color Purple. Alice Walker. Harcourt. Challenged as appropriate reading material for an Oakland, Calif. High School honors class (1984) due to the work's "sexual and social explicitness" and its "troubling ideas about race relations, man's relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality." This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was finally approved for use by the Oakland Board of Education after nine months of debate. Banned in the Souderton, Pa. Area School District (1992) as appropriate reading for tenth graders because it is "smut."Removed from the Jackson County, W.Va. school libraries (1997) along with sixteen other titles. (Purchase)

The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Jacob and Wilhelm K. Grimm. Translated by Jack Zipes. Bantam. Restricted to sixth through eighth grade classrooms at the Kyrene, Ariz. elementary schools (1994) due to its excessive violence, negative protrayals of female characters, and anti-Semitic references. (Purchase)

D

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Galilei Galileo. Univ. of California Pr. Banned by Pope Urban VIII for heresy and breach of good faith (1633). The more things change, the more they stay the same... (Purchase)

Different Seasons. Stephen King. NAL. Removed from the West Lyon Community School library in Larchwood, Iowa (1987) because "it does not meet the standards of the community." Removed from the Washington Middle School library in Meriden, Conn. (1989) after a parental complaint. Challenged at the Eagan High School in Burnsville, Minn. (1992). This collection of novellas, which include the stories on which the acclaimed movies Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption were based, is some of King's best writing. (Purchase)

A Doll's House. Henrik Ibsen. Penguin. Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committe (1983)--presumably the same who objected to The Diary of Anne Frank --called for the rejection of this work because it propagates feminist views. (Purchase)

Don Quixote. Saavedra Miguel de Cervantes. Methuen; NAL; Norton; Random. Placed on the Index in Madrid for the sentence, "Works of charity negligently performed are of no worth." (Purchase)

E

Earth Science. American Book. Challenged at the Plymouth-Canton school system in Canton, Mich. (1987) because it "teaches the theory of evolution exclusively. It completely avoids any mention of Creationism...The evolutionary propaganda also underminds {sic} the parental guidance and teaching the children are receiving at home and from the pulpits." I guess their homes and pulpits didn't teach them how to spell "undermine."

The Egypt Game. Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Dell; Macmillan. This award-winning novel was challenged in the Richardson, Tex. schools (1995) because it shows children in dangerous situations, condones tresspassing and lying to parents and ostensibly teaches about the occult. The school board declined to ban this book, but did decide that parents should be notified when it is used in class. (Purchase)

F

Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury. Ballentine. Ironically, students at the Venado Middle School in Irvine, Calif. received copies of the book with scores of words--mostly "hells" and "damns"--blacked out. The novel is about book burning and censorship. Thankfully, after receiving complaints from parents and being contacted by reporters, school officials said the censored copies would no longer be used (1992).(Purchase)

The Figure in the Shadows. John Bellairs. Dell. Restricted at the Dysart Unified School District libraries in El Mirage, Ariz. (1990) because of two uses of profanity and because of its link to magic. This book is terrific for middle school readers. It is the second book in a series which starts with The House With a Clock in its Walls. (Purchase Figure) (Purchase House)

G

Gone with the Wind. Margaret Mitchell. Avon; Macmillan. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel was banned from the Anaheim, Calif. Union High School District English classrooms (1978). The novel was challenged in the Waukegan, Ill. School District (1984) because it uses the word "nigger." (Purchase)

Grapes of Wrath. John Steinbeck. Penguin; Viking. Burned by the St. Louis, Mo. Public Library (1939) on the grounds that "vulgar words" were used. Banned in Kansas City, Mo. (1939); Kern County, Calif., the scene of Steinbeck's novel, (1939); Ireland (1953); Kanawha, Iowa High School classes (1980); and Morris, Manitoba (1982). Challenged in the Greenville, S.C. schools (1991) because the book uses the name of God and Jesus in a "vain and profane manner along with inappropriate sexual references." I liked the turtle. (Purchase)

The Graphic Work of M.C. Escher. M.C. Escher. Pan/Ballentine. Retained after being challenged at Maldonado Elementary School in Tucson, Ariz. (1994) for "pornographic", "perverted", and "morbid" themes. I guess they think good art should match your sofa.

Grendel. John C. Gardner. Knopf. This book has been challenged quite a lot, which may explain why the Grendel books my 11th grade English teacher ordered never arrived...Most recently challenged, but retained, on high school reading lists in Douglas, Colo. (1997). Parents, who have obviously never read Beowulf, compained that the novel was too obscene and violent for high school students. (Purchase)

Gulliver's Travels. Jonathan Swift. Airmont; Bantam; Bobbs-Merrill; Dell; Grosset; Houghton; NAL; Norton; Oxford Univ. Pr.; Pocket Bks. Denounced as wicked and obscene in Ireland (1726), which was no doubt the effect Swift was going for. (Purchase)

H

Hamlet. William Shakespeare. Airmont; Cambridge Univ. Pr.; NAL; Norton; Penguin; Methuen. Banned in Ethiopia (1978). (Purchase)

The Happy Prince and Other Stories. Oscar Wilde. Penguin. Challenged at the Springfield, Oreg. Public Library (1988) because the stories were "distressing and morbid." (Purchase)

I

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou. Bantam. This book gets challenged quite often, due to the poet's descriptions of being raped as a young girl. (Purchase)

It. Stephen King. Viking. Challenged at the Lincoln, Nebr. school libraries (1987); placed on a "closed shelf" at the Franklinville, N.Y. Central High School library (1992). (Purchase)

J

James and the Giant Peach. Roald Dahl. ABC-Clio; Knopf. Challenged at the Deep Creek Elementary School in Charlotte Harbor, Fla. (1991) because it is "not appropriate reading material for young children." Challenged at the Pederson Elementary School in Altoona, Wis. (1991) and at the Morton Elementary School library in Brooksville, Fla. (1992) because the book contains the word "ass" and "promotes" the use of drugs (tobacco, snuff) and whiskey. Removed from classrooms in Stafford County, Va. Schools (1995) and placed in restricted access in the library because the story contains crude language and encourages children to disobey their parents and other adults. (Purchase)

K

King Lear. William Shakespeare. Airmont; Methuen;NAL; Penguin; Pocket Bks. Now considered to be among Shakespeare's greatest works, Lear was performed in drastically adapted form--Nahum Tate's Restoration version eliminated characters and boasted a happy ending in which Lear is restored to the throne and Cordelia survives. The play was subject to political censorship when it was banned from the English stage from 1788 to 1820, out of respect to King George III's alleged insanity. The tragic ending of King Lear was not restored until 1823, and the character of the fool was finally reintroduced in 1838. (Purchase)

The Koran. Penguin; Tahrike Tarsil; Quran. Ban lifted by the Spanish Index in 1790. Restricted to students of history in the USSR (1926). (Purchase)

L

Le Morte D'Arthur. Sir Thomas Malory. Scribner; Collier; Penguin. Challenged as required reading at the Pulaski County High School in Somerset, Ky. (1997) because it is "junk." Granted, Malory has problems with his narrative, but YOU try to translate Medieval French texts into comprehesible Middle English. (Purchase)

The Life and Times of Renoir. Janice Anderson. Shooting Star Pr. Restricted at the Pulaski, Pa. Elementary School Library (1997) because of nud_e paintings in the book. Well, duh. It's Renoir, people.

A Light in the Attic. Shel Silverstein. Harper. Challenged at the Cunningham Elementary School in Beloit, Wis. (1985) because the book "enourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them." Removed from Minot, N.Dak. Public School libraries when the superintendent found "suggestive illustrations." Challenged at the Big Bend Elementary School library in Mukwonago, Wis. (1986) because some of Silverstein's poems "glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children to be disobedient." (Purchase)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. C.S. Lewis. Macmillan. Challenged in the Howard County, Md. school system (1990) because it depicts "graphic violence, mysticism, and gore." I'm sure the school system would rather have its children reading something which adheres to "good Christian values." I cannot recommend the works of C.S. Lewis highly enough. The Narnia books, in particular, are great for readers of all ages. (Purchase this book) (Purchase the entire Chronicles of Narnia)

Little House in the Big Woods. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Buccaneer; harper; Transaction. Removed from the classrooms, but later reinstated, for third-graders at the Lincoln Unified School District in Stockton, Calif. (1996). Complainants also want the book removed from the library because it "promotes racial epithets and is fueling the fire of racism." (Purchase)

Little House on the Prairie. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Buccaneer; Harper; Transaction. Challenged at the Lafourche Parish elementary school libraries in Thibodaux, La. (1993) because the book is "offensive to Indians." Banned in the Sturgis, S. Dak. elementary school classrooms (1993) due to statements considered derogatory to Native Americans. It always amazes me how people would rather ignore or revile literature from a past era, rather than use it to teach acceptance and tolerance. Obviously the characters depicted in the novel do not have "politically correct" 21st century viewpoints. Why not use the opportunity to discuss how things have (hopefully) changed? (Purchase)

The Lorax. Dr. Seuss. Random. Challenged in the Laytonville, Calif. Unified School District (1989) because it "criminalizes the foresting industry." Isn't that the de-foresting industry? (Purchase)

The Lords of Discipline. Pat Conroy. Bantam. Challenged in the Cobb County, Ga. schools (1992) for profanity and descriptions of sadomasochistic acts. Removed from and elective English course by the WestonKa, Minn. School Board (1992) due to parental complaints about language and sex in the book. (Purchase)

M

The Martian Chronicles. Ray Bradbury. Bantam. Challenged at the Haines City, Fla. High School (1982) for profanity and the use of God's name in vain. Challenged at the Newton-Conover, N.C. High School (1987) as supplemental reading due to profanity. Challenged at the Gatlinburg-Pittman, Tenn. High School (1993) due to profanity.(Purchase)

My Friend Flicka. Mary O'Hara. Harper; Lippincott. Removed from fifth and sixth grade optional reading lists in Clay County, Fla. schools (1990) because the book uses the word "bitch" to refer to a female dog, as well as the word "dam_n." (Purchase)

O

The Odyssey. Homer. Airmont; Doubleday; Harper; Macmillan; MAL; Oxford Univ. Pr.; Penguin. Plato suggested expurgating it for immature readers (387 B.C.) and Caligula tried to suppress it because it expressed Greek ideals of freedom. (Purchase)

On the Origin of Species. Charles B. Darwin. Harvard Univ. Pr.; Macmillan; Modern Library; NAL; Morton; Penguin; Rowman; Ungar. Banned from Trinity College in Cambridge, UK (1859); Yugoslavia (1935); Greece (1937). The teaching of evolution was prohibited in Tennessee from 1925-1967. (Purchase)

P

Paradise Lost. John Milton. Airmont; Holt; Modern Library/Random; NAL; Norton. Listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in Rome (1758). (Purchase)

R

Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry. Random. The Ogden, Utah School District (1979) restricted circulation of Hansberry's play in response to criticism from an anti-pornography organization. Did they read the same play I read? (Purchase)

The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. Jim Miller, ed. Random. Challenged in Jefferson, Ky. (1982) because it "will cause our children to become immoral and indecent." They used to say the very same thing about polyphony. (Purchase)

S

The Satanic Verses. Salman Rushdie. Viking. Banned in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Malaysia, Qatar, Indonesia, South Africa, and India due to its criticism of Islam. Burned in West Yorkshire, England (1989) and temporarily withdrawn from two bookstores on the advice of police. Five people died in riots against the book in Pakistan. Another man died a day later in Kashmir. Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, stating, "I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses, which is against Islam, the prophet, and the Koran, and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, have been sentenced to death." Challenged at the Wichita, Kans. Public Library (1989) because it is "blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed." (Purchase)

Slaughterhouse-Five. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dell; Dial. Burned in Drake, N. Dak. (1973). Banned in Rochester Mich. because the novel "contains and makes references to religious matters" and thus fell within the ban of the establishment clause. Challenged at the Owensboro, Ky. high School library (1985) because of "foul language, a reference to 'Magic Fingers' attached to the protagonist's bed to help him sleep, and the sentence: 'The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the fly of God Almighty.' " Challenged, but retained on the Round Rock, Tex. Independent High School reading list (1996) after a challenge that the book was too violent. This particular novel is the recipient of a very cool plug in the movie, Footloose, starring Kevin Bacon. (Purchase)

Song of Solomon. Toni Morrison. Knopf; NAL. Challenged, but retained in the Columbus, Ohio schools (1993). The complainant believed that the book contains language degrading to blacks, and is sexually explicit. Removed from required reading lists and library shelves in the Richmond County, Ga. School District (1994). Challenged at the St. Johns County Schools in St. Augustine, Fla. (1995). Removed from the St. Mary's County, Md. schools' approved text list (1998) by the school superintendant over the objections of the faculty. (Purchase)

The Stand. Stephen King. Doubleday; NAL. Restricted at the Whitford Intermediate School in Beaverton, Oreg. (1989) because of "sexual language, casual sex, and violence." (Purchase)

T

The Talmud. Soncino Pr. Burned in Cairo, Egypt (1190); Paris, France (1244); and Salamanca, Spain (1490). The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages tried to suppress this work. Pope Gregory IX ordered it burned (1239); Pope Innocent IV ordered King Louis IX of france to burn all copies (1248 and 1254); Pope Benedict XIII ordered the bishops of the Italian dioceses to confiscate all copies (1415); Pope Julius III ordered that Christians reading the Talmud be excommunicated; Pope Clement VIII forbade both "Christians and Jews from owning, reading, buying or circulating Talmudic or Cabbalistic books or other godless writing." (1592)

To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee. Lippincott/Harper; Popular Library. This novel has been challenged quite a lot due to its racial themes. Challenged--and temporarily banned--in Eden Valley, Minn.(1977); Challenged at the Warren, Ind. Township schools (1981), because the book "represents institutionalized racism under the guise of 'good literature'." After unsuccessfully banning the novel, three black parents resigned from the township human relations advisory council. Banned from the Lindale, Tex. advanced placement English reading list (1996) because the book "conflicted with the values of the community." (Purchase)

Tom Jones. Henry Fielding. NAL; Norton; Penguin. Banned in France (1749). I guess the French have a problem with humor. (Purchase)

Twelfth Night. William Shakespeare. Airmont; Cambridge Univ. Pr.; Methuen; NAL; Penguin; Pocket Bks.; Washington Square. Removed from a Merrimack, N.H. high school English class (1996) because of a policy that bans instruction which has "the effect of encouraging or supporting homosexuality as a positive lifestyle alternative." (Purchase)

U

Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Airmont; Bantam; Harper; Houghton; Macmillan; NAL. Challenged in the Waukegan, Ill. School District (1984) because the novel contains the word "nigger." Never mind that the novel is often credited with raising public antislavery sentiment which ultimately led to the emancipation of American slaves. (Purchase)

V

Vasilissa the Beautiful: Russian Fairy Tales. Progress Pubns. Challenged at the Mena, Ark. schools (1990) because the book contains "violence, voodoo, and cannibalism."

W

Welcome to the Monkey House. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Delacorte; Dell. A teacher was dismissed for assigning this collection of short stories to her eleventh grade English class because the book promoted "the killing off of elderly people and free sex." The teacher brought suit and won in Parducci v. Rutland, 316 F.Supp.352, (M.D.Ala 1970). (Purchase)

Where the Sidewalk Ends. Shel Silverstein. Harper. Challenged at the West Allis-West Milwaukee, Wis. school libraries (1986) because the book "suggests drug use, the occult, suicide, death, violence, disrespect for truth, disrespect for legitimate authority, rebellion against parents." Challenged at the Central Columbia School District in Bloomsburg, Pa. (1993) because a poem titled "Dreadful" talks about how "someone ate the baby." On the other hand, this book does present the negative consequences of not taking the garbage out. (Purchase)

Where's Waldo? Martin Handford. Little. Challenged at the Public Libraries of Saginaw, Mich. (1989), Removed from the Springs Public School library in East Hampton, N.Y. (1993) because there is a tiny drawing of a woman lying on the beach wearing a bikini bottom but no top. Yes, but did they find Waldo? (Purchase)

The Witches of Worm. Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Atheneum. Challenged at the Hays, Kans. Public Library (1989) because it "could lead young readers to embrace satanism." The Newbery Award-winning book was retained on the approved reading list at Matthew Henson Middle School in Waldorf, Md. (1991) despite objections to its references to the occult. (Purchase)

A Wrinkle In Time. Madeleine L'Engle. Dell. Challenged at the Polk City, Fla. Elementary School (1985) by a parent who believed that the story promotes witchcraft, crystal balls, and demons. Challenged in the Anniston Ala. schools (1990). The complainant objected to the book's listing the name of Jesus Christ together with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists, and religious leaders when referring to those who defend earth against evil. Got it. Let's cross Jesus off that list, shall we? (Purchase)

Z

Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings. D.T. Suzuki. Doubleday. Challenged at the Plymouth-Canton school system in Canton, Mich. (1987) because "this book details the teachings of the religion of Buddhism in such a way that the reader could very likely embrace its teachings and choose this as his religion." The last thing we need are a bunch of peaceful Buddhists running around. The horror. (Purchase)

© 1998-2008 by Janet Yanosko Elkins. Updated March 6, 2005

More banned books. See how many you agree with:

Little House on the Prairie. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Buccaneer; Harper; Transaction. Challenged at the Lafourche Parish elementary school libraries in Thibodaux, La. (1993) because the book is "offensive to Indians." Banned in the Sturgis, S. Dak. elementary school classrooms (1993) due to statements considered derogatory to Native Americans. It always amazes me how people would rather ignore or revile literature from a past era, rather than use it to teach acceptance and tolerance. Obviously the characters depicted in the novel do not have "politically correct" 21st century viewpoints. Why not use the opportunity to discuss how things have (hopefully) changed?

Little House On The Prairie

The bit i have hilighted in Red is a valid point IMO

I'd have thrown a bottle at the screen.

Speaking of throwing bottles at the screen, how's the Weagles looking this year?

Or still rebuilding?

Picked up some good young players in the draft, but still a couple of years away from doing a "Hawthorn".

Some of do not seem to realize that banned books can sometimes still be bought from retail outlets, but are removed from the public eye by banning them from schools and libraries. Is it ever reasonable to take 1984, Animal Farm or Catch 22 off library shelves? Book Grinches think so.

Have You Read a Banned Book?

By Martha Brockenbrough

"The Catcher in the Rye" ... "Of Mice and Men" ... "The Grapes of Wrath" ... "To Kill a Mockingbird" ... "Lord of the Flies" ... "Lolita" ... "Catch-22" ... "Brave New World" ... "The Sun Also Rises" ... "Song of Solomon" ... "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

This is just a partial list of banned books I've read without having any idea I was being scandalous.

What about you? If you've read much at all, you too have most likely swum in the dangerous waters of perversion, depravity and anti-patriotism -- if you believe what the would-be book banners have to say.

Let's look at John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." In the 1950s, it was banned in Ireland. In the 1970s, several U.S. cities followed suit. In 1977, even the Ku Klux Klan challenged it in Greenville, S.C. The Klan! Now there's a group with a wholesome message.

Elsewhere, people have complained that Steinbeck was "anti-business" and "unpatriotic" and therefore should not be read. All of this for a heartbreaking best-seller about migrant labor that the author intended to build understanding of what he called "the tragic miracle of consciousness."

Though many of the most famous banned books were written decades ago, the antipathy toward them hasn't died off. As recently as 2001, Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" was actually burned outside a church in New Mexico for its supposedly satanic nature.

What's more, we can't go all that long without stories about book banning and censorship finding their way into the media and blogosphere -- sometimes with only vague explanations of what banning and censorship really are.

During the recent presidential election, for example, some people were concerned that Sarah Palin had tried to ban books from her local library when she was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. What actually happened, according to newspaper accounts, was that she asked the librarian several times about the possibility of removing books "if the need arose."

This isn't book banning or censorship. Why? Because Palin never had a specific list of books she'd remove. Nor did she ask the librarian to remove any books. But if she did direct the librarian to remove books, that would have been censorship.

It also wasn't censorship when Random House decided in 2008 not to publish "The Jewel of Medina," a novel about a fictional wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The decision not to publish the book came after a professor read it and concluded that it had turned history into soft-core pornography, and it made fun of Islam. (Many people disagreed with the professor's assessment.)

So why wasn't this censorship? Because Random House is a business, not a government or a library. Businesses don't have to publish anything that comes their way. The process there is called editing. Others were free to publish the book -- and did.

And that's really the key to understanding if something constitutes censorship. It's one thing for someone not to like an idea or expression of it. It's another thing for a government or public library (which is a government entity) to say that no one should have access to that same material.

It's rare in the United States, which has a First Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech and of the press, for a book to be removed from a library or school.

But it's common for people to "challenge" books in libraries, and that's the first step in having one book removed from circulation. Last year, the American Library Association received 420 written challenges -- more than one every single day.

One of the top 10 most challenged books last year was a sex education manual for 9- to 12-year-olds called "It's Perfectly Normal." Despite rave reviews by psychologists and physicians, including T. Berry Brazelton, some people found it "pornographic," while others objected to the presentation of homosexuality as normal.

The most challenged book of the year, though, was "And Tango Makes Three," a picture book that told the true story of a pair of male penguins in New York that receive an egg to nurture. The objections were varied: it was anti-ethnic, sexist, gay, anti-family, it had an inappropriate religious viewpoint and wasn't suitable for children -- all of this despite excellent reviews from both School Library Journal and Booklist.

Apparently no one objected that reading the book might make the kids want to grow up and be penguins.

Actually, it's really easy to make fun of censors when you disagree with their points of view. It gets harder with books you'd like to see disappear.

I went to college in a very liberal town with a nationally known bookstore, and recall the day a long-haired hippie shambled up to the counter and asked for "The Anarchist Cookbook," published in 1971 to protest the Vietnam War. The book advanced the idea that violence was an acceptable way to bring about social change.

"We don't carry that here," a store clerk said. "It's a terrorist book." Again, this is a business decision for the store. But doesn't that make their Banned Book Week events a bit hypocritical? My public library does carry the book -- a credit to their commitment to free speech, even if it's scary to think about who might be checking out the book.

So I can see where people who have different points of view than mine are bothered by books that don't bother me in the least. But then I think about the words of Noam Chomsky, which are as apt as they are challenging:

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

So complain about books all you want. But only ban them if you're willing to outlaw your own ideas, too.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Col...k&gt1=27004

I think its quite simplistic to suggest that banned books are solely at the behest of rabid pc people.

The Golden Compass was challenged by Catholics who felt it was a metaphor for the Catholic church.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (a children's book) was challenged due to the fact that this book includes homosexual characters and offensive language.

One library banned The Catcher in the Rye because of "excess vulgar language, sexual scenes, things concerning moral issues, excessive violence, and anything dealing with the occult."

In 2001, a group of parents in Lewiston, Maine staged an old-fashioned book-burning to torch a series of books they claimed were promoting violence, witchcraft and devil-worship. (The fire department intervened before the first match was struck, and the protest's organizer settled for a pair of scissors with which to mutilate the books.) Though Harry Potter was still in his literary infancy, the boy wizard's saga had already garnered its fair share of opponents; similar public displays of contempt occurred throughout the country.

Sources: CNN banned books article and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

The Golden Compass was challenged by Catholics who felt it was a metaphor for the Catholic church.

The Golden Compass ( Northern Lights ) is in my view quite clearly an attack on the Roman Catholic Establishment, although I accept it has been a few years since I read the book(s).

Pullman is quite the atheist, but the story was more of a slant to sell the books, rather than an intelligent critique/exposé , in my humble opinion of course.

Moss

All book banning is not done by politically correct groups. but a great deal of it is. The irony is that these are usually liberals, who would say that they are against censorship, but like most censors, they only want to stop literature that violates their own values and they make up long, involved justifications for censoring material that they don’t agree with. I am not a fan of Noam Chomsky , but I love this quote by him: "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all".

Book Banning: a PC Form of Book Burning, Politics/Issues » Posted In: Censorship Posted By: Margo Pierce

Censorship is one of the major reasons we have a constitution and the form of government everyone points to as the best in the world. But that doesn’t stop individuals and groups from claiming objectionable materials must be removed from libraries and other institutions.

The Nazis used book burning to censor reading, but we’re more “enlightened” here in the U.S. Instead we create what might appear to be reasonable arguments for saving people from themselves and their ignorance about the perils, usually moral in nature, such writing creates.

To call attention to those people who think the First Amendment applies to others, we celebrate the 26th Banned Book Week this week. “Observed since 1982 during the last week of September each year, Banned Books Week celebrates the Freedom to Read,” according to Kristin Fahrenholz, an ACLU law clerk. “Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose and the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. It also stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.”

Sponsored by rabble such as the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers and National Association of College Stores, Banned Book Week is also endorsed by that most subversive of all groups, the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. In a press release about this important week, Fahrenholz and the ACLU provide some interesting information:

“What is Censorship?

“Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons -- individuals, groups or government officials -- find objectionable or dangerous. Censors try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries, to suppress and remove from public access information they judge inappropriate or dangerous, so that no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.

“Who Attempts Censorship?

“In most instances, a censor is a sincerely concerned individual who believes that censorship can improve society, protect children, and restore what the censor sees as lost moral values. But under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, each of us has the right to read, view, listen to, and disseminate constitutionally protected ideas, even if a censor finds those ideas offensive.

“Often challenges to books are motivated by a desire to protect children from 'inappropriate' sexual content or 'offensive' language. Although this is a commendable motivation, the Library Bill of Rights states that 'Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents -- and only parents -- have the right and the responsibility to restrict access of their children and only their children to library resources.' Censorship by librarians of constitutionally protected speech, whether for protection or for any other reason, violates the First Amendment.

“What Is the Difference Between a Challenge and a Banning?

“A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials.”

Challenging the ban on a book is simple: Go to your local public library and check out a copy of one of the most frequently banned books of 2007:

1) And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell

Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2) The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3) Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes

Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language

4) The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Reasons: Religious Viewpoint

5) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Reasons: Racism

6) The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

7) TTYL by Lauren Myracle

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

8) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Reasons: Sexually Explicit

9) It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris

Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Off the list this year are two books by author Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye and Beloved. Both have been challenged for sexual content and offensive language.

If these books aren’t in your library, demand an explanation, write a letter of protest and encourage others to do the same. If the books are there, happy reading!

— Margo Pierce

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-19...ok-burning.html

General I spent a good deal of time searching the 'net yesterday (at least 30 minutes) in response to you saying that black groups never opposed "Sambo" and almost without exception I found that the vast majority of books that are banned are done so through agitation from the Christian right.

Now you point the finger of shame at liberal groups. Sorry but you cannot have it both ways.

I challenge you to produce a list of ALL banned books in the USA and sort them into two categories, one we will call the "Bill and Fred get married" category and the other the "1001 watermelon recipes" category. My argument is that the former will vastly outnumber the latter.

I have posted several letters from librarians and they seem to feel that the main problem is with the lefties.

You may notice the title of the last opinion-piece by a fed up librarian: Book Banning: a PC Form of Book Burning, Censorship Posted By Margo Pierce .

He's too busy polishing the new Medal of Freedom his mate Bushy just gave him.

Little Johnny Howard is to get one also!

Who?.....

Blogger fury as Howard bumps Obama

January 8, 2009 - 10:42AM

US bloggers are up in arms over former Australian prime minister John Howard "bumping" President-elect Barack Obama from an official government guest house in Washington.

Mr Howard will stay at Blair House the night before he receives the US Medal of Freedom from retiring President George Bush next week.

Mr Obama has been forced onto the Blair House waiting list until January 15 when he and his family will move in - five days before his inauguration as president.

The Obamas requested an early move-in at the 70,000-square-foot, 119-room mansion across the street from the White House, so their children could settle in to start school this week, The Washington Post reported.

But the incoming first family was told the residence had been booked out, so they took a suite at the nearby Hay-Adams Hotel.

President Bush has been the main target for criticism from bloggers to political sites.

"George couldn't make this idiot stay at the Hay-Adams?" was one of 142 comments to The Caucus blog at the New York Times.

"Isn't Blair House big enough for everybody? Bush was just afraid nobody would pay any attention to him with Obama in the house," another said.

Mr Bush was accused of favouring a mate over a political rival.

"What makes it worse is that this Administration is once again going out of its way to do little favours for their friends at everyone else's detriment," a blogger to the Watergate Summer site said.

But not everyone was against the decision.

Jack Moss, host of The MacRanger Show on Blog Talk Radio, is defending the decision, saying President-elect Obama should wait in line like "ordinary folk".

"Obama has done diddly squat for the country, as opposed to John Howard who supported the US and our efforts on the war on terror while Mr Obama talked down our efforts and called our troopers rapers and pillagers," he said.

"This is most fitting."

The British broadsheet The Times reported that Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair, who is also to receive the Presidential Medal, declined an invitation to stay at Blair House because he didn't wish to be "the man who bumped Obama".

He was expected to bed down at the British Embassy instead, The Times said.

AAP

I suppose most censorship begins at the publisher's desk.

Stephen Leather took years to get "Private Dancer" published because it was about whore-mongering, but when it finally did hit the book shops it still sold well.

(I bet you never see that on Smalltown High School's library shelves).

I have not found any articles or proof that "most books are banned by the Christian right", but I did find this interesting tidbit by the other side:

Conservatives Turn the Page on 'Banned Books Week'

By Tim Graham (Bio | Archive)

October 6, 2008 - 08:03 ET

While taxpayer-funded librarians organize their self-congratulatory "Banned Books Week," all about their raging love for the First Amendment and the right to speak out, Michael Alison Chandler of the Washington Post was kind enough to notice on Friday that social conservatives have figured out that it's fun to shift the charge of "censorship" to the librarians that reject thousands of titles each year, perhaps with a little political and cultural bias in the process:

More than 40 students, many wearing black T-shirts stamped with the words "Closing Books Shuts Out Ideas," said they tried to donate more than 100 books about homosexuality to more than a dozen high school libraries in the past year. The initiative, organized by Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, was intended to add a conservative Christian perspective to shelves that the students said are stocked with "pro-gay" books.

Most of the books were turned down after school librarians said they did not meet school system standards.

The story was featured on the front page of the Metro section on Friday, complete with a large picture of teenage girls wearing their anti-censorship T-shirts against the librarians. Chandler explained how the librarians choose to exclude the conservative books. Political correctness is certainly a strong ingredient in the censoring mix:

But library officials said donated and purchased books alike are evaluated by the same standards, including two positive reviews from professionally recognized journals.

None of the donated titles met that standard, said Susan Thornily, coordinator of library information services for Fairfax schools. Some librarians also said that the nonfiction books were heavy on scripture but light on research, or that the books would make gay students "feel inferior," she said.

Thornily said school librarians have rejected other books that "target minority groups" and would offend African Americans or other nonwhite students. In this case, librarians were concerned about the level of scholarship in the books, many of which come from small church publishers.

Chandler does not explore the idea that the country's largest publishers might fail to publish books on this theme, since they may have the same "don't target minority group" standards. If the library shelves feature only one point of view because the other side doesn't match the liberal "level of scholarship" or publishing prestige, doesn't that still suggest the librarian in charge is not really interested in allowing all points of view? There's a bright side at the end of this story:

Thornily said she has offered to help find books that meet the county standards and offer a religious view on homosexuality along with other views. She has asked librarians to consider adding such books to their collections.

If librarians are really interested in a bold free market of ideas, they ought to more than "consider" such books. They should be seeking them out -- unless they want to change the meaning of "Banned Books Week" and pin the "ban" charge on the librarians.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/20...nned-books-week

Would you agree that this list is correct? It's almost impossible to collate of course, Bible Belt states would support my argument and states like California, yours.

50 most banned books.

So many of the Book Grinches are either nutty religious groups or wacky PC types. I rather ban all of them than a single book!

Just out of curiosity, as a book seller, have you ever refused to carry a book for any other reason than it was unsellable?

(Other than price of course )

Do YOU think that the word "women" should be changed to "womyn" to keep radical feminists feeling cheerful?

Womean?

Just out of curiosity, as a book seller, have you ever refused to carry a book for any other reason than it was unsellable?

(Other than price of course )

Pretty much never, I detest Noam Chomsky, but I have a big section of his stuff and I normally only give my opinion about him if asked.

I do feel a little uncomfortable carrying books on black witchcraft and usually won't import it myself, but will buy it from customers and put it on the shelves if it looks interesting enough.

When movies get banned for whatever reason, be it moral, political or obscene etc. it usually fails to achieve its intention of stopping it being seen by the public. In fact, the publicity that it gets often gives it free advertising and popularizing it to a level it may never have had.

Does the same thing happen in the book world?

I can understand certain sections "boycotting" books and movies but with the internet and the fact you can get hold of absolutely anything you want, is there really any point in banning them?

Newly banned movies get a lot of attention and some adults might go out of their way to get a copy, but they might be forgotten by the time that children get old enough to look for one.

Lots of banned books are modern classics that have been around a while and do not get a lot of attention when removed from the shelves, so people don't run out looking for them and children are not known for spending the little money they might have on reading material anyway.

I have always loved to read and I can not concieve of never having read 1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World or Catch 22, but I was introduced to them all in school or public libraries as a child and might never have searched them out myself. Is it fair to never give many people the chance to discover these wonderful books in school because a few people have their own agenda that they don't want disturbed?

When movies get banned for whatever reason, be it moral, political or obscene etc. it usually fails to achieve its intention of stopping it being seen by the public. In fact, the publicity that it gets often gives it free advertising and popularizing it to a level it may never have had.

So everyone wins, really. The people who wanted the book banned, gets it banned. And the people who think it is important that the book is widely available can be satisfied at the ensuing surge of popularity.

I can understand certain sections "boycotting" books and movies but with the internet and the fact you can get hold of absolutely anything you want, is there really any point in banning them?

You already mentioned the point - sales figures and circulation.

Some of do not seem to realize that banned books can sometimes still be bought from retail outlets, but are removed from the public eye by banning them from schools and libraries. Is it ever reasonable to take 1984, Animal Farm or Catch 22 off library shelves? Book Grinches think so.

Have You Read a Banned Book?

By Martha Brockenbrough

"The Catcher in the Rye" ... "Of Mice and Men" ... "The Grapes of Wrath" ... "To Kill a Mockingbird" ... "Lord of the Flies" ... "Lolita" ... "Catch-22" ... "Brave New World" ... "The Sun Also Rises" ... "Song of Solomon" ... "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

You can buy most of those for £3.75 in my local branch of Asda/Walmart.

Yes, and you can probably find them in your local library too. They are some of the greatest books of all time and they are not banned everywhere.

So we have the view that however which way you look at it banning any book is blatant censorship.

Does this mean there should be no censorship of the printed word?

What is a perfectly reasonable literary work of art to one person is totally abhorrent to another. So who decides?

As society's tastes and persuations change making certain views and subject matter unacceptable should older works including classics be grandfathered in? A book written today espousing the removal of the Jewish race would be considered totally unacceptable and quite rightly so. But some of the philosophical stuff written during the 19th century was close to that wire but still is held in high esteem for the free thinking it represented.

However whether these lofty arguements extend down to Sambo et al is beyond the capacity of my brain this time of night.

One of the most telling comments in this discussion was in a link provided.

A US high school principal when asked about book censorship in his school said:

"We don't actually ban anything, WE JUST DON'T BUY ANY BOOKS THAT ARE LIKELY TO DRAW COMPLAINTS FROM PARENTS".

One of the most telling comments in this discussion was in a link provided.

A US high school principal when asked about book censorship in his school said:

"We don't actually ban anything, WE JUST DON'T BUY ANY BOOKS THAT ARE LIKELY TO DRAW COMPLAINTS FROM PARENTS".

So how does he work out which books are likely to draw complaints?

Sounds like he's ducking the issue.

Do YOU think that the word "women" should be changed to "womyn" to keep radical feminists feeling cheerful?

Couldn't do that, sounds to much like hymen...