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| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and Bookish |
Top Ten Tuesday: (I am going off the chart since it is Banned Books Week, September 24-30)
My favorite YA frequently banned/challenged books, 2012-2016
- Looking for Alaska written by John Green
Reasons: challenged for a sexually explicit scene that may lead a student to “sexual experimentation” - Eleanor & Park written by Rainbow Rowell
Reason: challenged for offensive language - This One Summer written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Reasons: challenged because it includes LGBT characters, drug use and profanity, and it was considered sexually explicit with mature themes - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”) - The Holy Bible
Reasons: religious viewpoint - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence. Additional reasons: “depictions of bullying” - The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence - The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation” - The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group - Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicitWhat is your favorite banned/challenged book? 
Read The Hunger Games back when the film was making a splash (for the first time). I don't remember particulars to be honest, I just remember it's not a book I love. The idea of the characters being stripped of their free will seems little, well, "too dark."
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for visiting Finding Wonderland, Anne! :)
Eleanor and Park and The Hunger Games are two I've been wanting to finally read.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you read them you will scratch your head as to why these two books have been challenged.
DeleteSame with Greg.. I'm curious about Eleanor and Park and The Hunger Games. I watcher the Hunger Games movie (the first one) but I haven't read the books.
ReplyDeleteBoth are excellent.
DeleteI was reading something along these lines the other day. It never ceases to amaze me at the dumb reasons people challenge books.
ReplyDeleteHere is our Top Ten Tuesday Post. Thank you!
I think the people who challenge books are afraid of books and their power. If they "ban" a book their dear children will never, ever run into a situation where the family values are challenged.
DeleteI love The Hunger Games and I enjoyed Perks when I read it, though I think I might have liked it better if I hadn't seen the movie first. It honestly baffles the mind that anyone thinks it's okay to ban books.
ReplyDeleteMy TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/26/top-ten-tuesday-126/
I love so many of these, but especially Perks of Being a Wallflower!!
ReplyDelete-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.net
Hard to believe that some of them were banned, as popular as they ended up being.
ReplyDeleteAwesome list! I still can't believe that books are still being banned to this very day.
ReplyDeleteHere’s my Top Ten Tuesday!
Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog
I know what you mean.
DeleteBefore reading this list, I seriously didn't knew that "Looking for Alaska" and "Eleanor & Park" were banned? I mean why? I loved both the books seriously. Well, it's good to know :)
ReplyDeleteMy TTT
They maybe aren't banned, but more likely challenged.
DeleteI love that you did Banned Books this week! That would have a been a good topic for everyone. I haven't read all of these but I love Perks and Hunger Games! I have Eleanor & Park but haven't actually read it. Great list!
ReplyDeleteRead Eleanor and Park. it is amazing.
DeleteYay for Banned Book Week! Thank you for sharing your favorites, Anne! I really enjoyed Eleanor and Park and The Kite Runner as well. Perks of Being a Wallflower made my list today for Banned books I want to read. I also have read and enjoyed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. All of these books are ones I have trouble seeing as being ban worthy. But then, I'm not sure I would find any book ban worthy.
ReplyDeleteThat is what the ALA says, too. If you don't want to read a book, don't. But don't make it so no one can read it. Notice The Bible is on the list.
DeleteI read Bless Me Ultima years and years ago. The fact that it's on your banned book list makes me want to pick it up again.
ReplyDeleteI read it recently and LOVED it. I see why teachers want to teach it in schools.
DeleteMy friend did a banned book post for today too! The funny thing is though that only Looking for Alaska was on the list... Funny how it seems that religion and sex are the two big ban reasons. <3 I did diverse characters TBR... http://wp.me/p3LRfZ-5Hj
ReplyDeleteIt's such a great list of books, I am shocked every time I hear which books have been banned.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing a big thing about banned books week in my middle school reading classroom. About five years ago, when I had just shifted from teaching ELD (ESL) to "regular" language arts and had not yet made the much more satisfying switch to being a reading teacher, Eleanor and Park was challenged at my school, (a colleague had it in her classroom library), and my principal sent out an email telling us all to remove any other copies from the building. No process, and when I tried to have a conversation with him about it, he just pointed out some highlighted passages that have some words we don't want middle schoolers using.
ReplyDeleteBut they already do, is the thing. And the vicious insults in the book are spoken by the bullies, and the book is on the side of the kids who have to endure that kind of treatment. At any rate, I was inspired by my sense that Something Was Not Right to look into the whole banned books thing, and I know what I will do if such a challenge ever happens again (starting with due process at the district level!).
And I have two copies of E&P in my classroom now.
Other favorites: Part Time Indian, I Am Jazz, Drama, George, Harry Potter.
I loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Hunger Games so much. Looking for Alaska is a book I'm interested in but hesitant to read because I've had parts of it spoiled. It's like books can be banned for just about anything. Shouldn't books be allowed to address issues people face in real life? Very interesting list!
ReplyDeleteElena@The Novelistics
Great list! I wanted to also post one this week, but it's been a hectic week with presentations and what not. Out of all the books, I would say Looking for Alaska and Eleanor and Park are my favorite and impacted me the most.
ReplyDeleteExcellent list! One of the challenges that's never made anyone else to me about The Hunger Games is the anti-family one...
ReplyDeleteLauren @ Always Me