Oh, btw, Ed, allegedly, in one of the big huge pictures with lots of people, there’s a topless woman. A topless cartoon woman. That’s about half an inch tall. And only one of about 500 people on that page.
I’ve read:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Cujo by Stephen King
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Now, I suppose it’s fun to sneer at “book burners,” but would one of the more (supposedly) enlightened people here care to
tell me why Madonna’s “Sex” and “The Joy of Gay Sex” belong in school libraries?
I’ve read over 42 of those books, so I won’t torture you with the full list. 42 is the actual number I counted, but I have read all of the Harry Potter books, and all of the Anastasia Krupnik books. And I read a lot of them for school.
I’ve left off the ones I didn’t finish (like Lord of the Flies) and ones that were read to me (like little Black Samo), but that still leaves:
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
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
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
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
Blubber by Judy Blume
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Cujo by Stephen King
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
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
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
I find this a bit odd since I haven’t tried to read books that were banned, and this list is close to three times as long as the number of the “100 greatest novels of the 20th century” I’ve also read by happenstance. Apparently I’m more naturally drawn to banned than great!
In college:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Native Son by Richard Wright
In high school:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
On my own, over the years:
Forever by Judy Blume
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Read to me in elementary school by teachers:
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
A complete list of the books I stole from the library of Theodore Roosevelt Middle School in Westfield, New Jersey in December of 1988:
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
I read Unintended Consequences by John Ross. I believe it was banned for a time in Canada…
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain*
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck*
Forever by Judy Blume (actually, in 6th grade I skimmed most of it and only read the ‘naughty bits’)
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson*
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Blubber by Judy Blume
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee*
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes*
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein*
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Ordinary People by Judith Guest*
Lord of the Flies by William Golding*
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell*
- were assigned or read in class
Wait, question…what’s upsetting about Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing? It struck me as pretty innocuous when I read it. Granted, though, it is pretty creepy to imagine what it’s like to get swallowed by a small and rather sticky child. But at the end, Peter does get his own dog.
The complete list of the books I’ve read off this list is a bit long (seeing as I have a penchant for purposely finding books off lists like these), but these are the ones that I remember being assigned for school:
Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling (actually, just the first one…the French translation of it for my 3rd year French class)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Most of these were in middle school…To Kill a Mockingbird, The Pigman, and Summer of My German Soldier were all assigned in the same year, actually.
I’ve read more disturbing books for school, but they’re just not special enough to get put on banned book lists.
Well, I discovered that of the seven books I was assigned in seventh and eighth grades, four have been challenged, including both of the ones from seventh grade literature class(A Day No Pigs Would Die and To Kill a Mockingbird). Ah, but I always knew Mrs. Z was a subversive type. Anyway, here’s my list.
-Lil
- 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
- A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
- Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel (The first one, God help me)
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- The Witches by Roald Dahl
10 Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry - Blubber by Judy Blume
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Pigman by Paul Zindel
- A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
- How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
As a couple of others have said, to little effect, the list is NOT a list of banned books. It is a list of the 100 books most “challenged”, which means that someone has complained that they shouldn’t be stocked. That doesn’t mean that any of them were actually banned.
I’ve read:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Sex by Madonna (sorry. Well, maybe not read - looked at the pictures)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
I have read:
Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain *
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling *
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine *
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle *
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain *
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell *
Wow… I liked a lot of these books. How to Eat Fried Worms was one of my faves years ago.
[sub]*I have copies of these books around somewhere.[/sub]
These “banned” books look an awful lot like the english curriculum when I was in school. anyway, I read:
Scary Stories(series) Alvin Schwartz
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Sex by Madonna
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
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
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Carrie by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Hmmm…
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huck 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*
several Goosebumps books by R. L. Stine
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The first Earth’s Children book by Jean M. Auel, whose name I can’t recall (it sucked)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice, I think.
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak sounds familiar, but I can’t remember what it was about, if I did read it
one of the Stupids books by Henry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Goats by Brock Cole, assuming it’s the one about the kids in summer camp
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
the beginning of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee*
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley*
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright, I think
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison*
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
I recall reading a book about a boy who decided to go 40 days (or something) without eating anything but worms. If How To Eat Fried Worms is that book, then I have read it.
Asteriks (*) by the ones I read for school.
Out of curiousity, what is the objection to Flowers for Algernon? It seem pretty benign to me(but so did a lot of these books).
Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain *
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck *
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Giver by Lois Lowry **
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood *
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison *
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee *
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Lord of the Flies by William Golding **
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya *
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain **
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
-
- Read in high school
** - Read in junior high
- Read in high school
Strange, I’ve never had to read Brave New World or the Catcher in the Rye in school. The other books I read when I was younger (now almost 18).
I’ve read the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States.
Aren’t these banned in the High Schools nowadays?
Probably the part about him getting rough on the pregnant hooker.
I had a list of books to read the summer before my sophomore year, and I had to choose some of them to read over the summer before the year started. BNW was on that list, but I never got around to reading it until much later. I don’t recall what made me get a hold of Catcher in the Rye.
In Wuthring Heights Heathcliff mutilates animals! Bad, evil, bad! (One of my favorite books, actually)
I’ve read 13. Most of these at school.
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
- The Witches by Roald Dahl
- Blubber by Judy Blume
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
- Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
- Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
- Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
- Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
- How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell