Challenged Books (1990-2000)

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

Yes, folks, my first ever meme, where you copy a list and highlight which ones you've done, or something along those lines. I've been going through my email and was interested in the banned book week list one of my friends sent me. I read a passage from Ulysses during Banned Book Week back in college, and no, not Molly's monologue. Something from Nausica, I think. One of my friends read a passage from A Wrinkle in Time. So these are the banned books I've read. And in the list, from 1990-1999, I only have one more addition, That was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton. That one was upsetting to me because of the young teen that got hooked on drugs.

And honestly, some of them I get the reasons for the challenging, not that I approve of the concept as there should be free speech and all that. But I get why people have issues with Wrinkle of Time, and Bridge to Terebithia and anytime that there's religious stuff. And I get the sex stuff as well as the supernatural stuff. I still think they should be available for teens, particularly the ones that deal with non-white, non-straight, non-wasp, non-male identities. Because when I was in school we got barely anything outside of the 'dead white dudes and occasionally dead white dudettes' canon, as I like to call it. And if there were queer identities identities out there, they were pretty hidden. I remember when I finally realized that Whitman's poem about the swimmers had a homoerotic element to it. Oh.

I went through a lot of books in my library and there were some that I read when I was far too young and impressionable. And there were a lot of ones that creeped me out. Zilpha Keaty Snyder's stuff tended to be too creepy. There were also ones I wasn't prepared for the trauma yet. Like I remember reading some of the teen novels about suicide and sex. I remember not getting into Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume as well, I guess I couldn't relate to the boy all that well and the sex stuff was troubling. And there were some images I would've preferred not having. Not unlike seeing Carnal Knowledge at 14. Eeek. There was also a bad, bad Oz book out there that was clearly geared to adults that I either threw out or gave to a bookstore when I was at home last. Clearly, a book that should be thrown with great force out the window and away from anyone to read it. Which gives me an idea for another blog: which books did you want taken out and buried so noone could innocently decide reading it was a 'good' idea? Which movies did you want to leave?

But, I've gotten over most of whatever creepiness I had and there were some that I was ready for. I've never been able to care about The Chocolate War, again probably because of the male narrators which sometime mattered and sometime didn't. I gave up on Beloved by Morrison as I wasn't finishing it and wasn't finishing it. I read Jazz and liked it.

However, I am mystified why they've challenged the Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry. I began reading them at the age of 10 or so. I got the first one for a birthday gift and have read most of them. There's probably some swearing in it and they're not a perfect family, but on the whole, they are a good, but slightly nuts family. I think when I read them, I desperately wanted her parents as my own as they were younger than mine and more wacky. (In a fun way).

So, I think maybe parents and children should talk about the books they read, but if say, the child is unable to talk to said parents, they should be able to get them out of the library. It should be there if they need them. Thus endeth my spiel.

And as I've been cleaning my apt, I have entirely too much stuff. Too many books, boxes, papers, and the like.