Banned Books Week '11

I know I'm belated, but I just had to mention one of my great passions: books.  Or to be more specific banned books.  Last week was National Banned Books week; the time when we remember that not all readers are free to be you and me.  Many people are shocked to learn that books are regularly banned in the United States today.  Most of the time this has to do with parents complaining about books being too much for their child, so they want to strip the book out of a whole classroom, library, school, or even district. 

I do not understand the logic at all.  I absolutely do not want my little girl to read Slaughterhouse Five because she is too young to understand or cope with the very adult themes.  However, that does not mean I want the book removed from the library.  It turns out that my niece, who is much older than my daughter, would benefit very much from reading that book.  Why would I want to remove it from a situation when it can be appropriate and beneficial to so many readers?  It boggles my mind that anyone should be so self-centered that they would try to ban a book just because it doesn't suit them.  You don't see me trying to ban all the sports books or westerns from the library!

Anyway, this is banned books week, as I said, and these are the top ten most challenged books according to the accounting of the American Library Association.

The 10 most challenged titles of 2010 were:


And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group

What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit

Twilight (series), by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group