Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
One boy's climb from apartheid to tennis champion.
Banned
1993
California - Challenged at Amador High School in Sutter Creek
New Jersey - Challenged at Manasquan schools for a brief yet graphic homosexual passage
1996
Connecticut - Challenged at Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlington for brutal and graphic language
North Carolina - Temporarily pulled from Greensboro high school libraries after a resident sent letters to the school board and administrators, claiming the book could encourage sexual assault among children
1997 - California - Challenged but retained on a reading list for high school sophomores at Lincoln Unified School District in Stockton after parents referred to it as "pornographic and racially insensitive"
1999 - Ohio - Removed from Federal Hocking High School English in Athens for sexually graphic passage
2000
California - Removed from a sophomore reading list at Armijo High School in Fairfield for sexual content
Michigan - Kearsley school officials deleted six sentences describing a homosexual molestation scene in the book after parents found it offensive
2006 - California - Challenged but retained at East Union High School in Manteca after challenged for use of words such as "penis" and "anus" during a scene where young boys prostitute themselves for food
2007 - California - Banned from Burlingame Intermediate School
2010 - California - Challenged but retained in San Luis Obispo High School.
#39 on the ALA Top Banned Books 2000-2009
Sources
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.
Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or RSS Feed
Help support the podcast on Patreon
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0