banned books

[cellio]

100 Most Frequently Challenged Books, 1990-2000.

Here are the ones I've read at some time in my life. I was surrpised to find some of them on this list.

5 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
22 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
36 Final Exit by Derek Humphry
41 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
43 The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
47 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
52 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53 Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
57 The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
59 Ordinary People by Judith Guest
77 Carrie by Stephen King
84 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
97 View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts

I was surprised to see some entries that are probably related to sexual development (What's Happening to my Body -- editions for both boys and girls) but not I-thought-popular books like Joy of Sex or Our Bodies, Our Selves. Go figure.

Comments

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

"Our Bodies, Ourselves" used to be on the list. When we lived at Shepard Street, I had a Banned Reading shelf where I had just the banned books. That was one of them. I intend to have a similar shelf at our new home when I get around to finishing the library. (SF and mysteries are up, for some reason non-fiction has been hopelessly jumbled) I occasionally think about trying to complete the entire set of 100, but it would take me longer than a year and new books would make the list in the meantime. Furthermore, I don't care for either Stephan King or Daniel Cohen. Thanks for the URL, I can use it.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Based on what I learned about censorship last fall term, I'd guess that part of the reason Joy of Sex isn't on the list is that it doesn't usually show up in school libraries, which is where the majority of challenges happen.

[cellio]

If it's based on school libraries (and I suspect it is), I really have to wonder that some of these books got onto enough shelves in the first place to make a decade's top-100 list. I mean, I think Final Exit, for example, is unobjectionable (and kind of dry, IIRC), but it would never occur to me to order it for a school library....