Banned Books Week

Most Frequently Challenged Books for 2008.

Banned Books Week starts September 26th.

• And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
• His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman. Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
• TTYL; TTFN; L8TR, G8TR (series), by Lauren Myracle. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
• Scary Stories, by Alvin Schwartz. Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
• Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya. Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
• Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
• Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen. Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
• Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper. Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

When the kids were younger we used this list for ideas and inspiration - they tend to be well written (I'll say Gossip Girl notwithstanding even though I'll confess I've never read one of them) and they are always thought provoking.

Apparently the San Francisco Public Library did pull a book from the collection when the author made the request; He was afraid government officials were invading his thoughts. Not kidding. Read about it here.