So don't tell me what to write and don't tell me that I'm wrong

[sovay]

In honor of Banned Books Week, a meme obtained from jlundberg: bold the banned books you've read.

(Cut for books. Lots of books.)

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) (Read the first novel, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty; no more.)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

The number of children's or YA books on this list somehow surprises me. I'm sure it shouldn't. Sigh.

Comments

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Some of these really and truly baffle me as to even possibly questionable content, even if I did approve of banning books. And I'm not just thinking of Where's Waldo...

[sovay]

Flowers for Algernon and Julie of the Wolves are probably the ones that puzzle me the most right now, although I'll also admit that I can't see what there is in the Anastasia Krupnik books to object to. (I hadn't thought of those in years. I think I read them mostly in late elementary and early middle school. This meme made me remember.)

[sovay]

Ah, see, I only ever read the original short story.

. . . that's still insane.

[larryhammer]

Anastasia Krupnik also caught my attention for WTF factor. Eh?

---L.

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

I agree, though "Where's Waldo" does strike me as the silliest book banning of which I've ever heard. What's so objectionable about a book that has no content in the first place?

[kraada.livejournal.com]

I don't remember much objectionable in "How to Eat Fried Worms" either . . .

Now the Anarchist's Cookbook on the other hand, that's some heavy shit. Don't think I still have a copy these days, though I'm sure I could find one by firing up freenet . . . that book at least I can see why they banned.

But Goosebumps? It was trashy horroresque pulp. I think I read like the first 20 of them and then realized that the next few were all one of the original stories redone in a slightly different fashion and gave up . . .

At least the Hardy Boys took about 50 books before I realized that . . .

[sovay]

I think I read about two Goosebumps books once. They both had excruciatingly stupid twist endings that even Rod Serling would have hidden from. Maybe they were banned in an effort to raise the quality of children's horror fiction . . .

I never read the Hardy Boys much. I did read Nancy Drew. That information does not leave this livejournal.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I believe one of the tiny women on the beach is topless (if you look closely).

Go figure...

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I just googled Where's Waldo to find out why it had been banned.

Apparently there's a topless female bather somewhere in there.

I was always bad at Where's Waldo, so I guess I missed her.

[thomasfreund.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in banning any books. Also, putting the series The Stupids in the same category as The New Joy of (Gay) Sex?? I would agree that children under a certain probably shouldn't look at sexually (ahem) explicit material, mostly because they won't understand any of it. I read through my mother's copy of A Child is Born which had biological drawings and details of conception, and I was terrified for years as to what exactly a man left behind in a woman in order to cause pregnancy. (Does it grow back?)

I suppose someone thought that The Stupids was being impolite to retarded or learning-disabled people. It just goes to show that they didn't read anything past the title because they were just rather funny books (mostly illustrations) about a silly family and their adventures.

[sovay]

and I was terrified for years as to what exactly a man left behind in a woman in order to cause pregnancy. (Does it grow back?)

You know, that's totally and completely reasonable.

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

The one I'm most desperately trying to figure out is James and the Giant Peach. Now I'll admit it's been a quarter century since I read it, but I can't remember a single thing that anyone would find even remotely objectionable...

[sovay]

Wanting your insane Dickensian relatives to get squashed into paper cutouts by a ginormous peach causes school shootings? I got nothing.

[greyselke.livejournal.com]

The nice parents do get stomped on by a rhinoceros at the beginning of the book, I was always rather disturbed by that. On the other hand, once I read past that sentence I have always deeply loved that book.

Who exactly is/was banning these books (schools, libraries, cities, states, countries?)

How on earth is Shel Silverstein objectionable?

"A genuine anteater,"
The pet man told me dad.
Turned out, it was an aunt eater,
And now my uncle's mad!

[dgr8bob.livejournal.com]

#67 is very much worth an hour of your time the next time you happen to have one spare. It's more magical realism-y than mythic, but despite obvious comparisons to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it's one of the best I've read in years.

Also, I don't know if you can really count #61.

[sovay]

Cool. I've never read any Isabel Allende; I shall give her a try.

Why not?