What are your favorite banned or challenged books?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_commonly_challenged_books_in_the_U.S.

"And Tango Makes Three" wins for cuteness. How can you not love gay penguins adopting baby penguins? I had an argument about this book last night with a family friend, who claimed that young children should not be exposed to such things because it confuses them and "screws them up". :eyes:

I also LOVED Flowers for Algernon. I'm not a big reader of fiction, but I adore that book.

I want to read Lady Chatterley's Lover at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it.

So, what are your favorites? They don't just have to be from that list, either.

And do you think books should ever be banned from public or school libraries? Why or why not?

And, especially as a librarian, NO. Nooks should never be banned, even ones I disagree with.

I read it when I was 13 and it kind of changed my life.

(And, I didn't know that you were a librarian. Win!)

You should email Ms. Garden and tell her how much the book meant to you -- she'll almost positively answer your email.

Indeed, for a long time, although noty in public or school libaries -- mainly because of the censorship forced onto librarians in those areas.

in the public schools.

SLAUGHTER-HOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut is a much maligned (and banned) book, and I love every syllable of it.

CATCHER IN THE RYE is considered too hot to handle for some school districts for students who are of an age when CATCHER IN THE RYE would be absolutely perfect for them to read.

LORD OF THE FLIES is felt to be too grisly, although for threshold interest, it's an extremely readable -- and teachable -- text. Not to mention a handsome Judeo-Christian allegory.

The fundies will squawk, right on cue, whenever they're told to by their local pastors. They wish to impose their private limitations onto public school curricula, and that is an unpardonable transgression.

My mother went through the roof after reading the wrong page. God it was funny.
I believe waaaaaay back when I was a teen "Diary of Anne Frank" was pillaged by the then fundies. Loved that book. Still love it.

Great book that humanized Jesus, just wish that Martin Scorses casted someone sexier then William Dafoe in the role of Jesus, opposite the beautiful Barbara Hershey as Mary M.

Especially Letters From The Earth and The War Prayer.

After a quick glance at the list, I'll pick that one, though there are a lot of great books on there, and more great books that have been banned that aren't on there.

I think I find the "challenge" of this book the most offensive, because it comes from liberals, who object to it's use of "the 'n' word." One of the most profoundly anti-racist books ever written is accused of racism? Incredible.

Is he a commie?

:rofl:

There are some fine books on that list. But, those are the ones I'd pick.

It is on the lists a lot because Laura refers to Indians as "savages", which was what her family called them.

Always makes me laugh. Who in their right mind would ban Little House on the Prairie? LOL

favorite is still "Little house in the big woods". I gave a whole set to my niece that I found at a garage sale, but she seems less interested than I was at that age. I still love going through them, great books.

At least of the ones that had been published by the late 60s.

I'm trying to find a pattern here. Huckleberry Finn has themes of child abuse and the rejection of authority, so I maybe understand why it's not the best choice for younger children(why is Tom Sawyer on this list? It's not subversive, or nearly as good), Gone with the Wind centers on an uppity woman living as she pleases (again, why? Because of the slavery? Like it or not, it did exist), The Grapes of Wrath is about dispossession (Mr. Retrograde had to read this in a public high school - 60's Alabama of all places), Harry Potter (OK, I'll agree about the last 4 - but only on literary merit: the same applies to Jean Auel), In Cold Blood (maybe a tad too mature for high school - ditto Lolita, which is wickedly funny and went way over my head at that age). Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men and Slaughterhouse Five were all on my high school's summer reading list.

Well now I have my reading list for a long upcoming trip. Let's see what I can get on the Kindle.

Jean Auel did ok with her first book, if you were interested in living off the land sort of stuff and willing to pass over the "story" and "characters". Then off to Pains of Passion! Soft core smut, throbbing thighs, on the best seller list. Paid by the pound? And didn't you like the last Harry Potter book..."Harry Potter Goes Camping"?

I see a Louis Sacher book on that list that I haven't read. My kid wrote Mr.Sacher a fan letter back in 3rd grade. Got a handwritten note back from him which very much impressed me.

"Where's Waldo" is on that list? Wild.

That's one of the best existentialist crisis depictions EVER. Satre's No Exit is the only one I can quickly think of that clearly beats it.

Gawd we're a stupid country.

Not all of them are good. Some of those books on that list are challenged by liberals too. "Little Black Sambo" for one, is considered racist, as is Huck Finn.

I would ban "A Farewell to Arms" just for being dreck. I don't think the loss of Little Black Sambo is a big deal, considering the Thornton Burgess books are largely forgotten. And who here has ever seen a copy of "The Philosophers of Foofooville"?

My favorite from that list is probably "The Outsiders"

Still banned in Miami-Dade school libraries. (Because it doesn't depict Castro as baby eating monster, nor mention anything political even though it's for youngsters.)

Amazing that you could find anything offensive to ban in that book.

I know. :rofl:

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2008/10/03/banned-books-week-where-s-waldo.aspx

Though the add-ons after Swiftly Tilting Planet went substantially downhill, imo.

:crazy:

Heck, almost anything by Vladimir Voinovich. "The Fur Hat" is a nice introduction.

Nabokov, nearly anything. Pasternak, Bulgakov, Vassily Grossman. Never much liked Solzhenitsyn's GULag series, but I liked Cancer Ward. Shalamov's Kolyma Tales. Terts' stuff (best not to try A Voice from the Chorus at one sitting).

Then there's the emigre stuff--Berberova, Aldanov, and the like.

Haven't read much 20th century (or later) American stuff. If you want banning, you have to go to an early and fairly dogmatic source.

*Try* to figure out why Solzhenitsyn's "Matryona's Yard" ("Court"?) was banned without looking at works about it.

A wrinkle in time?:wtf:

To kill a Mockingbird?:wtf:

The Grapes of Wrath?:wtf:

We are completely hopeless...

Another fav of mine isn't on the list, maybe because it was only banned in Boston... Kathleen Winsor's Forever Amber. What an incredible story, steeped in historic detail and of course, the hotness factor.

And every word written by D.H. Lawrence. The Film of Women in Love is one of the greatest adaptations of a book ever filmed.