Dear Readers,
For me, one of the joys of reading has always been the implicit danger that even opening a book could court controversy. I feel like I read Stephen King far too young. I connected to Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson as a teenager because it dealt with an important topic that we weren’t being taught about in school. I devoured Catcher in the Rye when I was 17 and then suffered through it again when I was 33 (trust me, it reads differently when you’re older). I suppose part of what’s drawn me to reading challenged and banned books is the idea that they’re inherently “dangerous” for some reason, which means that really, they’ve got some valuable lesson to learn (usually a viewpoint much different to your own) or literary style that was incredibly of its time – or leaps ahead of it, in some cases.
In past years, the former Adult Services librarian and I would put on in-house displays of covered books that were challenged across the years featuring the countless reasons why. We used to get a kick out of some of the reasons. John Steinbeck’s books? “Full of filth.” Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl? “Too depressing.” While some of the historical challenges may seem funny today, the sad thing is that books are still challenged and banned in schools and libraries, even though they have protection under the First Amendment. While most challenged books these days are typically for Young Adults and Children, it’s important to look at past challenges and bans to learn how they navigated the challenge of having people try to eliminate them from the shelves and celebrate the right we all have to read whatever we so choose. While some titles that are frequently challenged may have content that no longer aligns with today’s viewpoints, it can be interesting to read them and appreciate how far we really have come.
Below are just a few of my favorite Banned and Challenged Books, along with 2020’s Most Challenged Books compiled by the American Library Association. The challenges to books in 2020 were slightly different from the trends of the last few years. While LGBTQ+ and “anti-police” titles still sit high upon the list (typically YA and Childrens titles), a few literary classics have rejoined them in the Top 10 (welcome back To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men and The Bluest Eye). The library supports your right to read whatever you may choose and we’ll continue to stock our shelves full of characters across all spectrums so that our patrons recognize themselves in the pages of whatever book they choose to dive into. We’ve also included trivia this month!
So celebrate your right to read not just during Banned Books Week (September 26-October 2, 2021), but all year. The things that others may deem worth challenging could be what empowers you most.
Happy Reading!
-Julie, Communication & Outreach Librarian
PS: Learn more about Banned Books week at Banned Books Week and the Banned Books page of the American Library Associations website.
Think you know your Banned Books?
Test out your knowledge with our Trivia.
All summaries are courtesy of each book’s publisher.
Julie’s Favorite Challenged Books/Authors
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Available at Warren Public Library (Book & Graphic Novel)
“Speak up for yourself–we want to know what you have to say.” From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter. But this time Melinda cannot stay silent.
Why was it challenged? Speak was challenged yet again in 2020, so you can find the most recent reasons for it’s banning below in the Top 10. Anderson has been vocal about censorship and has summed up why reading challenged literature is so important: “Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.”
Why do I love it? It’s such an honest and difficult portrayal of both the high school experience and the aftermath of sexual assault. I first read the novel when I was in high school and while there were occasional whispers about sexual assault, the topic didn’t fully come into my own life until I was in college and it happened to one of my best friends. Last summer I read the graphic novel edition of Speak and found it to be even more powerful than the novel. Anderson writes about the topic in a way that’s not preachy and doesn’t feel like an after-school special. She also wrote a follow up book of poetry about her own experience of sexual assault entitled Shout that’s also definitely worth a read.
The Handmaid’s Tale
Available on Overdrive and at Warren Public Library (Book, audiobook, and graphic novel)
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that in gone now.
Why was it challenged? Challenged for being “sexually explicit, violently graphic and morally corrupt” on more than one occasion.
Why do I love it? Fantasy and sci-fi novels aren’t normally my thing…but I am a sucker for a well-written dystopian novel. Brave New World and 1984 are also frequently challenged dystopian novels (along with The Hunger Games), but as a woman, The Handmaid’s Tale totally freaked me out. The fact that it was brilliantly written only made it more haunting.
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Available on Overdrive and at Warren Public Library
Rose and her parents have been going to Awago Beach since she was a little girl. It’s her summer getaway, her refuge. Her friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had, completing her summer family. But this summer is different. Rose’s mom and dad won’t stop fighting, and Rose and Windy have gotten tangled up in a tragedy-in-the-making in the small town of Awago Beach. It’s a summer of secrets and heartache, and it’s a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.
Why was it challenged? This One Summer was named the most challenged book of 2016 in the American Library Association’s annual Top Ten Challenged Books list, with complaints citing its inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters, drug use, and profanity, and it was considered sexually explicit with mature themes.
Why do I love it? It’s fits the bill of being a fantastic summer read told through beautiful drawings and a relatable coming of age story. I read “This One Summer” during WPL’s Adult Summer Reading challenge a few years ago, and the story is one that’s really stuck with me.
Suggested author: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
Available at Warren Public Library
Carl Streator is a solitary widower and a fortyish newspaper reporter who is assigned to do a series of articles on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In the course of this investigation he discovers an ominous thread: the presence at the death scenes of the anthology Poems and Rhymes Around the World, all opened to the page where there appears an African chant, or “culling song.” This song turns out to be lethal when spoken or even thought in anyone’s direction–and once it lodges in Streator’s brain he finds himself becoming an involuntary serial killer. So he teams up with a real estate broker, one Helen Hoover Boyle–who specializes in selling haunted (or “distressed”) houses (wonderfully high turnover), and who lost a child to the culling song years before–for a cross-country odyssey to remove all copies of the book from libraries, lest this deadly verbal virus spread and wipe out human life.
Why has Palahniuk been challenged? Palahniuk’s titles are often challenged and the reasons can be found on the Intellectual Freedom Blog here. I chose to include Lullaby as Palahniuk alludes to censorship with this quote: “Imagine books and music and movies being filtered and homogenized. Certified. Approved for consumption. People will be happy to give up most of their culture for the assurance that the tiny bit that comes through is safe and clean. White noise.”
Why do I love it: I started reading Palahniuk in high school and honestly, I had no clue that fiction could be so off the wall dark and humorous. Palahniuk’s books aren’t for everyone, but for folks who are looking for something different, I think he’s worth reading.
The Walking Dead Comics by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard
First Fourteen Volumes are Available at Warren Public Library
Police officer Rick Grimes is shot on the job and wakes up a month later to find that the world that he knows is gone. Zombies have taken over and are killing and eating those who are still alive. He sets out toward Atlanta in the hope that his family is still alive and endures many horrors along the way.
Why was it challenged? A high school in Idaho removed the comics from its collection in 2017, even after a vote was passed to retain the title. But as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund points out, “The zombie trope offers the setting with which a diverse cast of characters, and their readers, can explore serious topics including survivalism, trauma, grief, loss, and the capacity for people to rebuild personal, social, and societal bonds when their status quo has been ripped away. The Walking Dead contains some violence and profanity, and very rare sexual situations, which serve to lend authenticity to its stories.”
Why do I love it? I really loved the first few TV seasons of The Walking Dead…which is when I started reading the comic and it quickly became apparent that my love of the source material would outgrow the show. While I may have given up on the on-screen version of the characters, I saw the illustrated ones through until the end of the comic in 2019. I’ve gone back and reread issues and they still hold up and have as much punch as they did years ago.
Top 10 Most Challenged Books in 2020
From the American Library Association: “The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 156 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2020. Of the 273 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books. The Top 10 lists are only a snapshot of book challenges. Surveys indicate that 82-97% of book challenges – documented requests to remove materials from schools or libraries – remain unreported and receive no media.”
#1: George by Alex Gino
Available at Warren Public Library
Reasons: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community”
Summary: When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she’s not a boy. She knows she’s a girl. George thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can’t even try out for the part . . . because she’s a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte — but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.
#2: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Available at Warren Public Library
Reasons: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people
Summary: The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. Racist ideas are woven into the fabric of this country, and the first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America’s racist past and present. This book takes you on that journey, showing how racist ideas started and were spread, and how they can be discredited.
#3: All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Available at Warren Public Library
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now”
Summary: When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn’s alternating viewpoints.
#4: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Available at Warren Public Library (Book and graphic novel)
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity
Summary: “Speak up for yourself–we want to know what you have to say.” From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter. But this time Melinda cannot stay silent.
#5: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Available at Warren Public Library (Book and audiobook)
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author
Summary: Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
#6: Something Happened in Our Town by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard and Illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
Title Not Available at Warren Public Library. Want to read it? Interlibrary loan it!
Reasons: Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police views
Summary: Something Happened in Our Town follows two families — one White, one Black — as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. The story aims to answer children’s questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives. Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and racism with children, child-friendly definitions, and sample dialogues.
#7: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Available on Overdrive (ebook and eaudiobook) and at Warren Public Library (Book, graphic novel and audiobook)
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experience
Summary: Voted America’s Best-Loved Novel in PBS’s The Great American Read. Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred. One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.
#8: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Available at Warren Public Library (Book and audiobook)
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students
Summary: A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression. They are an unlikely pair: George is “small and quick and dark of face”; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a “family,” clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California’s dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, nor predict the consequences of Lennie’s unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.
#9: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Available on Overdrive at Warren Public Library (Large Print)
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuse
Summary: Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison powerfully examines our obsession with beauty and conformity—and asks questions about race, class, and gender with her characteristic subtly and grace. In Morrison’s bestselling first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
#10: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Available on Overdrive and at Warren Public Library (Book and audiobook)
Reasons: Challenged for profanity, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
