Banned books

I think I’ve read more than my share of banned books because I’m a voracious reader. Some of the books on this particular list I didn’t like, but if they banned every book I didn’t like, there would be a really long list of books. So I wonder why some of the books made the list. Because they were about sex? Or badly about sex? Or teenagers thinking about sex?

• Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
• Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling…it took me a while to get interested enough in these to actually READ them, but I did. WHY are they banned? (I know…pretend witchcraft. Very subversive.)
• Forever by Judy Blume
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
• My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
• Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine…I’ve read a bunch of these….and in third grade, this was all some kids would willingly read.
• A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Sex by Madonna…as a singer, she is sure no writer.
• Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel…those women worked too darn hard. I would have died. I was so overwhelemed with all the travel and trouble it was to continue living, I didn’t much notice all the sex, so it was a SURPRISE to me when I discovered that THAT was why they were banned. What about all the basket weaving and flint knapping and walking, walking, walking and hunting?
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
• Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak…not one of my favorites…but really? Banned because of a penis? Oh, please.
• The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
• Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
• The Goats by Brock Cole
• Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
• Blubber by Judy Blume
• Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
• Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
• We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
• Final Exit by Derek Humphry
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
• The Pigman by Paul Zindel
• Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
• Deenie by Judy Blume
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
• Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
• The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
• Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
• A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
• Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
• Cujo by Stephen King
• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
• Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
• Ordinary People by Judith Guest
• American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
• What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
• Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
• Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
• Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
• Fade by Robert Cormier
• Guess What? by Mem Fox
• The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
• The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney…how the heck did THIS get banned?
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding…I read this one in high school and the pig part STILL gives me the creeps.
• Native Son by Richard Wright
• Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
• Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
• Jack by A.M. Homes
• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya….I’ve read this along with my class and I just don’t like it. It’s not worth banning, though.
• Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
• Carrie by Stephen King
• Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
• On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
• Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
• Family Secrets by Norma Klein
• Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
• The Dead Zone by Stephen King…I can’t read anything by Stephen King anymore; not since Thinner. Too scary.
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
• Private Parts by Howard Stern…a total waste of time to read OR to ban
• Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford….how did that get on this list?
• Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
• Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
• Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
• Sex Education by Jenny Davis
• The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
• Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
• How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
• Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

I would bet there are dozens of banned book lists. I probably have read every single one of them. When I lived in Utah, I made it my personal business to read every single fiction book they had at the big library. I wasn’t shocked by a single one…although there were times when I thought, “Damn! I could write a better book than this!”….and tha was before I had lived my life. I have a lot more material now!