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The American Library Association has tallied up the number of challenges made at libraries across the country in 2010, and, for the first time, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is among the top ten most challenged books. It comes in at number five on the list, and the reasons given by those who want the book banned include: sexually explicit (?!!), unsuited to age [...]
Welcome to Banned Books Week (September 25-October 2, 2010), an annual event that celebrates our freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Sponsored by the American Library Association, Banned Books Week spotlights book bannings across the country in an attempt to draw attention to the problem of censorship. Many people think censorship is a thing of the past, but let me assure [...]
Most reports of censorship make me angry, but all the fuss in Canada over a bare butt just makes me laugh. A ferry service in Vancouver, Canada has refused to carry Annabel Lyon’s The Golden Mean in their gift shops because the cover art features a boy’s naked backside. Sheesh. BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall says they came to that decision “Because we’re obviously a [...]
I’ve been following the news about the Teen Lit Festival in Texas with increasing frustration because few things irritate me more than censorship. The situation is this: best-selling author Ellen Hopkins was invited to take part in the Humble, Texas Teen Lit Festival that’s happening in January 2011. On her blog, Hopkins says she had visited two high schools in that school district before and [...]
A committee has voted 7-1 in favor of keeping Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares on the shelf of a Fond du Lac, Wisconsin middle school library. Parent Ann Wentworth wanted the Sisterhood books removed from the library because she believes the sexual content is inappropriate for that age group. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books follows four [...]
The American Library Association has released their annual list of the most banned/challenged books in American libraries. There are two new books on the list this year: the Twilight series and My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I can’t tell you how funny I think it is that Twilight is challenged for being “sexually explicit.” Abstinence is a central theme in the books! Is Edward’s [...]
