Poll: What banned books did you read? (Carry-over from GD)

In My Humble Opinion
1

GD thread.

Link to the list of banned books from 1990-2000

I thought it might be interesting to list which of these we read while in elementary or high school. I don’t mean just for class, but also that maybe you read and your parents just knew about it (Stephen King books for me).[ul][li]Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz [/li][li]The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain [/li][li]Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck [/li][li]My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier [/li][li]The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger [/li][li]The Witches by Roald Dahl [/li][li]To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee [/li][li]The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton [/li][li]Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [/li][li]A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein [/li][li]Cujo by Stephen King [/li][li]Lord of the Flies by William Golding [/li][li]Carrie by Stephen King [/li]The Dead Zone by Stephen King[/ul]No wonder I’m so screwed up, huh? :rolleyes:

2

I not only read them; I made sure to teach them to college students to make sure they were all exposed. :wink:

I used to teach these novels: Brave New World, Animal Farm, 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Planet of the Apes , and sometimes Catch-22.

They voted to see the film of Orange, so I ran it for 'em.

Subversion feels good.

3

In high school or before, with academic or parental approval:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (parental approval only, though I’m sure my English teacher secretly approved)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Blubber by Judy Blume
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

Many of the others were after my time.

4

Most of the same ones as masonite, plus all the Stephen King and J.K. Rowling ones. Sorry, I’m too lazy to type them all.

5

Required course reading in high school from the top 100 :

[ul][li]The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn[/li]
[li]Of Mice and Men[/li]
[li]To Kill A Mockingbird[/li]
[li]Lord of the Flies[/ul][/li]
Catch-22 and Animal Farm were also required course reading (I’ve noticed other people mentioning them, although they don’t appear on the top 100 list).

6

I’ve read all the Stephen King ones.
And the J.K. Rowling ones…

Why are Judy Blume’s books banned so much?

7

These books were banned? Wow… ::scratches head, feels very old::

I’ve read most of these, many in school as required readings no less.

It just amazes me that people work themselves into such a state that reading becomes a banned activity. Just as with most things illegal/banned, the more so the more people want to do it.

People should have a choice, IMHO, of what they read personally. In school, if the subject matter is controversial, then let the parents know and go from there. Don’t deny kids a different view of things. They are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.

8

Cuz she talks about seeeeexxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Seriously, though, it’s actually kind of prurient IMO. I’m completely down with sex education in the abstract, but Forever, for example, is pretty much guaranteed to be very erotic reading for a teen. I know it got me all hot and bothered.

Not as much as Wifey, though! :smiley:

I did have a few Judy Blume titles on my little shelf, right next to Stewart Little, and that shelf didn’t contain nuthin evil, I can guarantee that. Blubber, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, these were very slightly risque but nothing more. If I remember correctly, of course. It’s been a long time.
why can’t I stop using the italic tag?

9

(sorry, that was directed at BrightEyes.)

10

:: Correcting myself ::

Actually, Blubber wasn’t so much risque (hell with the italics, and the accent mark too) as “controversial”. The same goes for many other Judy Blume titles (I overgenaralized on the erotic aspect, of which Forver is the classic example). They delved into subjects that just make a lot of people uncomfortable. Blubber, for example, is fairly emotional stuff, and I say that as a person who was not fat as a kid. People will fuss about anything that forces kids to really think - like the pain of a fat kid. I’m not surprised someone, somewhere, was terribly offended by every one of her titles that attempted to cover topics with an automatic emotional impact. Some people get freaked out easily.

11

I read:

  1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
  2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  3. Forever by Judy Blume
  4. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  6. Deenie by Judy Blume
  7. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
  8. Cujo by Stephen King
  9. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
  10. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  11. Carrie by Stephen King
  12. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
  13. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
  14. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
  15. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
  16. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

It’s sad that lists like these are made. Inevitable disagreements with some of these choices aside (I found Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing WAY more upsetting than Little Black Sambo), it’s terrible to deal with objectionable material this way. I’d very much prefer that students read and discuss books like these, and in the process understand why they’re controversial. Not necessarily all agree that they’re objectionable, but just hear and appreciate others’ points of view.

12

I was such a prolific reader as a kid, it was hard - okay nearly impossible - for the librarian and my parents to keep up with everything I read. Heck, my folks were just glad books were more important to me than the tv (which, trust me for my generation is one heck of an achievement!).

My folks never censored my reading material. They even bought me books that were probably inappropriate (ie. Johnson and Masters book at the age of 11, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, all manner of Stephen King, etc) but as long as I learned something and enjoyed reading it, that is what mattered.

13

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by erislover *
**
[ul][li]Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz [/li][li]The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain [/li][li]Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck [/li][li]The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger [/li][li]The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton [/li][li]Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [/li][li]A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein [/li][li]Cujo by Stephen King [/li][li]Lord of the Flies by William Golding [/li][li]Carrie by Stephen King [/li][li]The Dead Zone by Stephen King[/ul]No wonder I’m so screwed up, huh? :rolleyes: **[/li][/QUOTE]

Out of those, the ones that I kept are the ones that I read, while in highschool (not all of them for highschool mind you).

Flowers for Algernon is banned???How in God’s name is that right? Why?? That book was great!

I read all of those, except for Planet of the Apes-I didn’t know the apes wrote a novel about the future:D

14

Scary Stories (Series)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Chocolate War
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Of Mice and Men
Harry Potter (Series)
Bridge to Terabithia
My Brother Sam is Dead
The Catcher in the Rye
A Day No Pigs Would Die
The Color Purple
Earth’s Children (Series)
Go Ask Alice
The Stupids (Series)
The Witches
Anastasia Krupnik (Series)
Blubber
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Pigman
Deenie
Flowers for Algernon
A Light in the Attic
Brave New World
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy
Cujo
James and the Giant Peach
The Anarchist Cookbook
Ordinary People
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret
The House of Spirits
The Face on the Milk Carton
Slaughterhouse-Five
Lord of the Flies
Native Son
Carrie
Tiger Eyes
The Dead Zone
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Summer of My German Soldier
Pillars of the Earth
How to Eat Fried Worms
These books were not necessarily banned from any specific school/library, but challenged because someone felt that they weren’t appropriate in some way.

Anyway, those are the ones I’ve read - and I don’t regret reading any of them. Some were on my own, some were for school - they do go into tough themes in some cases (but How to Eat Fried Worms? Yeah, sure…it’s about kids being kids).

If I go on any longer I’ll get into GD territory, and that’s for the GD thread, not here. :slight_smile:

15

I’ve read at least 3/4 of the books on that list, and all of Viva’s. (aamof, I’m reading Catch-22 right now).

Book banning? Damn. A lot of those books were assigned reading when I was in High School.

Here’s the Book Burner’s Pledge:

We will read the Bible, but not contemporary American Classics. We don’t want to read about violence, unless it’s Our Brand™ of violence: Good-old-fashioned Biblical violence, with a smattering of smiting thrown in for flavor.

Furthermore, what’s good for us is good for you, so do what we tell you to, or we’ll report you to the Thought Police.

16

Please note that the above list is NOT of banned books, it is a list of those books that a single parent has raised an objection about to the school board, i.e., a “Challenged” book. The ALA estimates that about 24,000-40,000 books have been challenged since 1990, but are strangely silent as to how many of these challenges have resulted in a banning. If somebody finds out, please report to the other thread.

17

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman (hey, don’t laugh – I was working at a children’s bookstore and I was bored)

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel (well, the first two, anyway)

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard

Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry (BTW, does anyone know what on earth people found objectionable about this one?)

Blubber by Judy Blume

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Deenie by Judy Blume

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Native Son by Richard Wright

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford (?!?!)

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts

18

These are the ones on that list that I’ve read:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain *
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger *
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding *
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

    • was assigned in a high school class.
19

WTF is wrong with Where’s Waldo? It is the same book that I’m thinking right, find the dumb guy in the picture? If so how can you be offended by that?

Anyway I’ve read all the books by King, Catcher in the Rye, The Twain books, and I’m in the middle of the Harry Potter series right now.

On a side note some of these book look intersting enough to include in my 50 Book challenge. That should piss some people off, now where’s Waldo?

20

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney

Many of these were assigned for class, quite a few of them in elementary school.