LibGuides: Banned Books Week Sept 27-Oct 3, 2020: The Books! Print

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Challenged or banned elsewhere - available at James Library!

Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
Call Number: 306.76 Kuk 2014
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, sex education, homosexuality, offensive, anti-family. Top 10 Challenged - 2015 & 2019!
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Call Number: F Atw 1998
Reason: Challenged at Grimsley High School in Greensboro (2012) as "sexually explicit, violently graphic and morally corrupt." Top 10 Challenged - 2019!
Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
Call Number: F Row
Reasons: Anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, violence. Top 10 Challenged - 2019!
Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Call Number: F For 2007
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit. Top 10 Challenged - 2010 thu 2018!
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Call Number: F Tho 2017
Reasons: considered “pervasively vulgar.” Also, drug use, profanity, and offensive language. Top 10 Challenged - 2017 & 2018!
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Call Number: F Ash 2007
Reason: Discusses suicide. Top 10 Challenged - 2012, 2017 & 2018!
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki; Jillian Tamaki (Illustrator)
Call Number: 741.5 Tam 2014
Reasons: LGBT characters, drug use, profanity; considered sexually explicit with mature themes. Top 10 Challenged - 2016 & 2018!
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Call Number: F Hos 2003
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, thought to “lead to terrorism,” and “promote Islam.” Top 10 Challenged - 2014 & 2017!
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Call Number: 813.54 Lee I 1995
Reasons: Offensive language, and racism. Top 10 Challenged - 2017!
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Call Number: Call Number: F Row 2013
Reason: Offensive language. Top 10 Challenged - 2016!
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Call Number: F Gre 2005
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group. Top 10 Challenged - 2012, 2013, 2015 & 2016!
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Call Number: F Had 2003
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited to age group, "atheism." Top 10 Challenged - 2015!
Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
Call Number: F Jam 2012
Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit. Top 10 Challenged - 2012, 2013 & 2015!
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Call Number: 741.5 Bec 2007
Reasons: Nudity, sexual content. Top 10 Challenged - 2015!
Habibi by Craig Thompson
Call Number: 741.5 Tho 2011
Reasons: Sexually explicit, and nudity. Top 10 Challenged - 2015!
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Call Number: 813.54 Mor I 1994
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group. Top 10 Challenged - 2013 & 2014!
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Reasons: Drugs, alcohol, sex, homosexuality, and abuse. Top 10 Challenged - 2014!
Call Number: F Chb 2012
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Reason: Violent images, language. Top 10 Challenged - 2014!
Call Number: 741.5 Sat 2003
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan; Fiona Staples (Artist) Reasons: Anti-Family, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. Top 10 Challenged - 2014!
Call Number: 741.5 Vau v.1
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. Top 10 Challenged - 2014!
Call Number: 364.154 Dug 2011
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya Reasons: Occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence. Top 10 Challenged - 2013!
Call Number: F Ana 1999
Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins Reasons: Anti-ethnic, anti-family, insensitivity, offensive language, occult/satanic, and violence. Top 10 Challenged - 2010, 2011 & 2013!
Call Number: F Col
Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith Reasons: political viewpoint, racism, violence. Top 10 Challenged - 2013!
Call Number: 741.5 Smi 2005
Beloved by Toni Morrison Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence. Top 10 Challenged - 2012!
Call Number: 813.54 Mor I 1988
The Glass Castle : a memoir by Jeannette Walls Reasons: Offensive language, sexual content, drunkenness, and violence against animals. Top 10 Challenged - 2012!
Call Number: 362.82 Wal 2009
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Reasons: Insensitivity, nudity, racism, religious viewpoint, and sexually explicit. Top 10 Challenged - 2010 & 2011!
Call Number: 823.912 Hux I 2013
The Color of Earth series by Kim Dong Hwa Reasons: Nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group. Top 10 Challenged - 2011!
Call Number: 741.5 Kim
Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich Reasons: Drugs, inaccurate information, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint. Top 10 Challenged - 2010!
Call Number: 305.569 Ehr 2001
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer Reasons: Religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence. Top 10 Challenged - 2010!
Call Number: F Meye 2008
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger Reasons: Sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group.
Call Number: 813.54 Sal I 1991
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult Reasons: Homosexuality, sexual content.
Call Number: F Pic 2005
The Color Purple by Alice Walker Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group.
Call Number: 813.54 Wal I 1992
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Reasons: Offensive language, sexual content, and religious viewpont.
Call Number: F And 1999
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Reasons: Sex, violence, drugs, profanity.
Call Number: F Bur
Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman Reason: Sexually explicit.
Call Number: 812.54 Dor I 1994
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
Call Number: 576.82 Dar 2003
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk Reason: Violence.
Call Number: F Pala 1996
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence Reason: Sexually explicit.
Call Number: 823.912 Law I 2001
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo Reasons: Not actually banned during WWII, but publication was halted. Later challenged for offensive language and being "anti-American."
Call Number: F Tru 2007
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson Reasons: Offensive language.
Call Number: F Wil 2012
City of Thieves by David Benioff Reasons: Profanity, sexually explicit.
Call Number: F Beni 2008
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque Reasons: Denounced on all sides, Allied and German, as "pacifist propaganda." Banned and burned by Nazis in the 1930s, and the author's German citizenship was revoked.
Call Number: F Rem 1958
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway Reasons: Profanity, sexual content.
Call Number: 813.52 Hem I 1996
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway Reasons: Sexual content, violence, "pacifist propaganda," and "un-American."
Call Number: 813.52 Hem I 2003
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Reasons: Offensive language and sexual content.
Call Number: 813.52 Fit I 1996
Animal Farm by George Orwell Reasons:"Politically incendiary."
Call Number: 828.912 Orw I 1995
Waterland by Graham Swift Reason: Sexual content.
Call Number: F Swi 2013
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson Reasons: Profanity; sexual content.
Call Number: F Gut 1995
Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger Reasons: Profanity, and references to sex and racism.
Call Number: 796.332 Bis
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Reason: Sexual content.
Call Number: F Mur 2000
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller Reason: Sexually explicit.
Call Number: 813.52 Mil I 1987
House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende Reasons: Occultism, sexually explicit, rape, and violence.
Call Number: F All 2005
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin Reasons: Sexuality, profanity, and violence.
Call Number: 813.54 Bal I 1998
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley Reasons: Sexual content and violence.
Call Number: F Smi 2003
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George Reasons: Sexual content, offensive language, violence and unsuited to age group.
Call Number: F Geo 1972
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri Reason: Sexually explicit.
Call Number: F Lah 2004
Grendel by John Gardner
Call Number: F Gar 1989
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Reasons: Offensive language, sexuality, offensive to religion.
Call Number: 813.52 Ste I 2006
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Reasons: Offensive language, racism, violence.
Call Number: 813.52 Ste I 1994
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Reason: Offensive language.
Call Number: 813.54 Hel I 2011
The Awakening by Kate Chopin Reason: Suicide, and religious viewpoint.
Call Number: 813.4 Cho I 2005
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, and violence.
Call Number: F Pat 1977
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey Reasons: Sexual content, criminal activity, and violence.
Call Number: F Kese 2012
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Reasons: Political viewpoint.
Call Number: F Von 2006
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Reasons: Offensive language, sexual content, violence, and religious viewpoint.
Call Number: F Von 2009
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson Reason: Offensive language, sexual content, racism.
Call Number: F Wat 1995
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel Reasons: Sexual content.
Call Number: F Esq 1995
The Giver by Lois Lowry Reasons: Euthanasia, infanticide, and sexuality.
Call Number: F Low 2011
Always Running by Luis J. Rodríguez Reasons: Violence, and sexual content.
Call Number: 923.41 Rod
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle Reasons: Occult, and undermines religious beliefs.
Call Number: F L'En 1962
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Reasons: Racism.
Call Number: F Mit 1964
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Reason: Racism, and offensive language.
Call Number: 813.4 Twa I 1996
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak Reason: Nudity.
Call Number: E Sen 71
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Reason: Homosexuality, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group.
Call Number: 811.54 Ang I 1969
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor Reason: Offensive language.
Call Number: F Tay 2001
The Sandman, Vol 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman Reasons: Challenged for being "objectionable."
Call Number: 741.5 Gai v.2
Hold Still by Nina LaCour Reason: Offensive language.
Call Number: F LaC 2010
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Reason: Sexual content.
Call Number: F Car 2013
Y by Pia Guerra (Artist); Brian K. Vaughan Reason: Sexual content.
Call Number: 741.5 Vau 2008, Vol. 1
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Reasons: Banned by Randolph Co., NC School Board in 2013, after a parent complained that it was filthy and contained bad language. The ban was lifted later the same year.
Call Number: 813.54 Ell I 1994
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Reason: Offensive language.
Call Number: F Brad 2013
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Reasons: Challenged in 2015 by a parent in the Knoxville, TN HS system for having "too much graphic information."
Call Number: 616.0277 Skl 2010
Black Boy by Richard Wright Reason: Sexual content.
Call Number: 928.13 WRI, & 813.52 Wri I 1991 v.2
Native Son by Richard Wright Reasons: Profanity, violence, sexually explicit.
Call Number: 813.52 Wri I 1991 vol.1
Push by Sapphire Reasons: Incest, and violence.
Call Number: F Sap 1997
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen Reason: Sexual content.
Call Number: F Gru 2011
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien Reasons: Graphic violence, and offensive language.
Call Number: 813.54 O'Br I 2010
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and violence.
Call Number: 813.54 Mor I 1987
In cold blood by Truman Capote Reason: Excessive violence.
Call Number: 364.1523 Cap 2007
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Reasons: Banned in the US and various countries as obscene.
Call Number: F Nab 1989
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers Reasons: Offensive language, drugs, racism, sexual content, violence.
Call Number: F Mye 2008
Lord of the Flies by William Golding Reasons: Excessive violence, offensive language, racism, sexual content.
Call Number: 823.914 Gol I 2011
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs Jr. Reasons: Drug use, sexual content, and obscene language.
Call Number: F Bur 2001
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Reasons: Offensive language, and sexual explicitness.
Call Number: F Hur