Page 1 of Sad state of society - revised

According to the American Library Association, here are the top 100 books that are frequently challenged in schools and schools library in the USA.

This is taken from the ALA

Quote:
Between 1990 and 2000, of the 6,364 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom:

1,607 were challenges to "sexually explicit" material (up 161 since 1999);

1,427 to material considered to use "offensive language"; (up 165 since 1999)

1,256 to material considered "unsuited to age group"; (up 89 since 1999)

842 to material with an "occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism,"; (up 69 since 1999)

737 to material considered to be "violent"; (up 107 since 1999)

515 to material with a homosexual theme or "promoting homosexuality," (up 18 since 1999) and

419 to material "promoting a religious viewpoint." (up 22 since 1999)
Other reasons for challenges included "nudity" (317 challenges, up 20 since 1999), "racism" (267 challenges, up 22 since 1999), "sex education" (224 challenges, up 7 since 1999), and "anti-family" (202 challenges, up 9 since 1999).

Please note that the number of challenges and the number of reasons for those challenges do not match, because works are often challenged on more than one ground.

Seventy-one percent of the challenges were to material in schools or school libraries.

Another twenty-four percent were to material in public libraries (down two percent since 1999). Sixty percent of the challenges were brought by parents, fifteen percent by patrons, and nine percent by administrators, both down one percent since 1999).

1 The Office for Intellectual Freedom does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges.

2 Sometimes works are challenged in a school and school library.

Here are the books that are causing the offence.

Quote:
Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz

Daddy`s Roommate by Michael Willhoite

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling

Forever by Judy Blume

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Giver by Lois Lowry

It`s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris

Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine

A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Sex by Madonna

Earth`s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L`Engle

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard

The Witches by Roald Dahl

The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein

Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry

The Goats by Brock Cole

Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

Blubber by Judy Blume

Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan

Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam

We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier

Final Exit by Derek Humphry

The Handmaid`s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

What`s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents &
Daughters by Lynda Madaras

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Pigman by Paul Zindel

Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard

Deenie by Judy Blume

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden

The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar

Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)

Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole

Cujo by Stephen King

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell

Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy

Ordinary People by Judith Guest

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

What`s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons
by Lynda Madaras

Are You There, God? It`s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Crazy Lady by Jane Conly

Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher

Fade by Robert Cormier

Guess What? by Mem Fox

The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Native Son by Richard Wright

Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women`s Fantasies by Nancy Friday

Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen

Jack by A.M. Homes

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya

Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle

Carrie by Stephen King

Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge

Family Secrets by Norma Klein

Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole

The Dead Zone by Stephen King

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Always Running by Luis Rodriguez

Private Parts by Howard Stern

Where`s Waldo? by Martin Hanford

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Running Loose by Chris Crutcher

Sex Education by Jenny Davis

The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene

Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts

The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney

Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Now our school system is totally different to the US, for example, our school leaving age is 16, whilst over in America, there leaving age is 18, so a lot of the books that maybe unsuitable for children would be okay for younger adults.

I know that the majority won't want to rush in to their library and hunt these or any books, but for those who do want to read classic novels are being denied by these God fearing radicals who are hell bent on trying to protect their sweet and innocent children from reading challenging or entertaining books.

Now the following books are banned in schools and the school library so no 16 or 18 year olds are able to read any of the following or are allowed to be taught in their English classes.

Quote:
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

1984
George Orwell

Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

The Lord of the Flies
William Golding

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck

Beloved
Toni Morrison

The Color Purple
Alice Walker

Ulysses
James Joyce

Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck

Catch-22
Joseph Heller

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley

The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway

As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner

Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison

Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad

Their Eyes were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston

A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess

A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway

Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell

One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest
Ken Kesey

Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway

The Call of the Wild
Jack London

All the King`s Men
Robert Penn Warren

The Jungle
Upton Sinclair

Lady Chatterley`s Lover
DH Lawrence

Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison

In Cold Blood
Truman Capote

Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie

Sons and Lovers
DH Lawrence

Naked Lunch
William S. Burroughs

A Separate Peace
John Knowles

Cat`s Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut

Women in Love
DH Lawrence

The Naked and the Dead
Norman Mailer

An American Tragedy
Theodore Dreiser

Rabbit, Run
John Updike

Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller

Native Son
Richard Wright

For a country that proclaims to be the land of the free, and stand by their freedom of speech, I can`t believe that there are people who want to ban books for the simple reason that it might expand the childrens and young adults minds, about the world about people, about themselves, which are outside their parents Christian values.

Could this wave of insanity influence the moral guardians over here and try and ban books in our schools that don`t fit the Christian or politically correct criteria?

floyd

This item was edited on Friday, 29th September 2006, 15:42

Banning books is one thing.

If they start burning them, run for the hills!
===========================
Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

My Top 20 movies at YMDB
Site Reviewer at DVD Reviewer

There are a lot of people who live here who think we live in a democracy too (we are a republic), but I am sure that crowd is the same one supporting the notion that knowledge is the path to corruption. They have probably felt that way eversince a woman named Eve followed the instructions of a particular serpent.

It is rather scary living here in these times, but I can`t really think of any other place where I can earn a very moderate income and enjoy all the mod-cons money can buy. I don`t maintain a credit card and save for my treats and conveniences and live very happily. I have recently paid off my mortgage too so I suppose I am sitting pretty at this point.


....and you thought life was tough

Quote:

Where`s Waldo? by Martin Hanford

What????

--
www.soundalikes.com

Quote:
1984
George Orwell
Oh the irony! ;)

Quote:
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
...regularly on the syllabus for GCSE English in this country, i.e. being read and studied by 14-16 year-olds.

This book was banned from schools and school library for using offensive language, racism, violence and being unsuited to age group.


floyd

What`s also interesting is that you can actually get at these statistics in the United States. Can we get the same level of freedom of information over in the U.K.? I don`t think so!

Let`s not forget that in this country we had the equally ridiculous banning of material that promoted homosexuality (clause 28?); has that been repealed yet? So perhaps this thread should really be titled "Sad People" and acknowledge that intolerance exists everywhere?

Quote:
banning of material that promoted homosexuality (clause 28?); has that been repealed yet?

Section (Clause) 28, has still not been repealed though, and according to Wikipedia, still has support from The Christian Institute, the African and Caribbean Evangelical Association, the Christian Action Research and Education, the Muslim Council of Britain, and groups within the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.

The Labour governement did try and get the clause repealed but it was overturned in the House of Lords by the 73 year old conservative politician Baroness Janet Young.

floyd

Quote:
1984
George Orwell


Oh the irony!


Couldn`t agree more, but of course, Americans haven`t quite grasped the concept of irony yet!