The Facts Speak for Themselves by Brock Cole
ST Harker

A young girl tells her horrifying story and if you don't need a shower after this one then you need to go to church.

Banned

#54 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

Contains sex, violence, neglect, codependency, parental abuse, domestic abuse, alcohol use, smoking

Sources

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Cole, Brock. "The Facts Speak For Themselves." Puffin Books. New York, 1997.

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

 

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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

You Hear Me? poems and writing by teenage boys, edited by Betsy Franco
ST Harker

A collection of poems by teenagers so get ready for some modern angst of Holden Caulfield levels.

Banned

#53 on Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

2003 - Georgia - Challenged by "a parent concerned about the book's language and topics" in Houston County public schools

Sources

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

Franco, Betsy, ed. "You Hear Me?: Poems and Writings by Teenage Boys." Candlewick Press. Somerville, Massachusetts: 2000.

Poetry Foundation. "Betsy Franco." Chicago, IL: 2018. Retrieved March 31, 2018 from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/betsy-franco

Titus, Ron. "You Hear Me?: Poems and Writings by Teenaged Boys." Marshall University Libraries. 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2018 from http://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/books/youhearme.asp

 

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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Time to Kill: A Novel
By John Grisham
A Time To Kill by John Grisham
ST Harker

When a black man kills the men who raped his daughter, a small southern town loses its damn mind.

Banned

#67 on ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

2005 - North Dakota - Challenged but retained at Fargo North High School advanced English classes despite complaints of graphic rape and murder scenes

Sources

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

Grisham, John. A Time to Kill. Doubleday. New York, 1989.

 

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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Posted
AuthorBanned Library
CategoriesAdult Fiction
Thirteen Reasons Why
By Jay Asher
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
ST Harker

A problematic author with a story containing a very muddled message about suicide.

Banned

2012 - 3rd most challenged book, according to ALA; Challenged for drugs, alcohol, smoking, being sexually explicit, suicide, and being unsuited for age group

2017

Alberta, Canada - St. Vincent Elementary School in Edmonton banned all mention of the series on campus

Colorado - At Mesa County School District, the curriculum director ordered librarians to stop circulating the book. Librarians and counselors deliberated for three hours and determined the book was not as graphic as the TV series. Parents in the school distrcit recieved notices alerting them to the possible influence of the series.

Illinois - Challenged and under review in the sophomore-level Academic English II classes at Lemont Hishg School District 210 because a parent considered it "pornographic."

Sources

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Ahsan, Sadaf. "Netflix adds trigger warnings to 13 Reasons Why after Canadian school board bans series for 'glamorizing' suicide." National Post. May 2, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2017 from http://nationalpost.com/entertainment/television/netflix-adds-trigger-warnings-to-13-reasons-why-after-canadian-school-board-bans-series-for-glamorizing-suicide

Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. Razorbill. New York, 2007.

Collins, Cathy. "Thirteen Reasons Why Controversy." Intellectual Freedom Blog. The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association. June 7, 2017. Retrieved on March 9, 2018 from http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=9793

Highfill, Samantha. "13 Reasons Why: Netflix says Jay Asher 'was not involved' in season 2." EW.com. Retrieved on March 9, 2018 from http://ew.com/tv/2018/02/13/13-reasons-why-season-2-jay-asher/

Titus, Ron. "Thirteen Reasons Why." Marshall University Libraries. June 28, 2017.  Retrieved on March 9, 2018 from http://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/books/thirteenreasonswhy.asp


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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Speak
By Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
ST Harker

High school is crazy, right? Like that one time you called the cops because of a super tramatic event but all your friends thought you were being a killjoy. Memories.

Banned

#60 on ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

2010 - Missouri - Parents of Republic School District were cautioned by assistant professor of management at Missouri State University that the book was "soft-pornography" and "glorifies drinking, cursing, and premarital sex," as well as teaching principles contrary to the Bible.


Sources

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on Feburary 24, 2018 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999.

Doll, Jen. "The Voice of 'Speak' Is Loud as Ever." The Atlantic, 2012. Retrieved Feburary 24, 2018 from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/10/voice-speak-loud-ever/322345/

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

Jensen, Kelly. "15 YEARS OF SPEAK: AN INTERVIEW WITH LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON." Book Riot, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2018 from https://bookriot.com/2014/04/08/15-years-speak-interview-laurie-halse-anderson/

Staino, Rocco. "Anderson’s Speak Under Attack, Again." School Library Journal, 2010. Retrieved on February 24, 2018 from https://www.slj.com/2010/10/industry-news/andersons-speak-under-attack-again/


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Fahrenheit 451
By Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
ST Harker

It was a pleasure to burn through this book and explain that people are dummies for banning a book on book banning.

Banned

1967 - Ballantine Books released the "Bal-Hi Edition" aimed at high school students which censored such words as "hell" and "damn" and "drunk man" became a "sick man."

1987 - Florida - The book was given "third tier" status under a homegrown book classification system at Bay County Schools in Panama City meaning it contained "vulgarity." After much controversy, the school abandoned the tier system and the book was placed in the curriculum.

1992 - California - Irvine school Venado Middle School censored after students received copies with words such as "hell" and "damn". Parents complained and reporters contacted the school so officials said the censored copies would not be used

2006 - Texas - Challenged at Conroe Independent School District for "discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, 'dirty talk,' reference to the Bible, and using God's name in vain," going against "religious beliefs."

Sources

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Ballantine Books. New York, 1953.

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

Library of Congress. "Books That Shaped America." Retrieved on April 16, 2019 from https://www.loc.gov/bookfest/books-that-shaped-america/


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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian by Kurt Vonnegut
ST Harker

Vonnegut dies to bring you news from the Pearly Gates, interviewing notable dead people about their lives and thoughts on current events.

Banned

No specific instances, but some comment on Vonnegut's take on religion, death, the afterlife, and controversial topics.

Sources

Vonnegut, Kurt. God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian. Seven Stories Press. New York, 1999.


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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Posted
AuthorBanned Library
Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin
ST Harker

A woman loses her husband and is not that broken up about it and that broke people up about it.

Banned

  • Scandalous by the people of the time (1890s) because the woman is not upset, even exhilarated, by the death of her husband.

Sources

Chopin, Kate. "Story of an Hour." A Vocation and a Voice. Penguin Books. 1991.

Clark, Pamela. "Biography." KateChopin.org. 2018. Retrieved Febrary 11, 2018 from https://www.katechopin.org/biography/

More, Lois. "Story Time for Grown-Ups: "The Story of An Hour" by Kate Chopin." New York Public Library. 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2018 from https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/03/18/storytime-grownups-kate-chopin-story-hour


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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Posted
AuthorBanned Library
CategoriesStory Time
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
ST Harker

A small town holds a very special lottery and people were super mad about it.

Banned

1981 - Minnesota - the film version of the story was banned in Forest Lake but reinstated by U. S. District Court Judge

South Africa - Country banned the story as it attacked reliance on traditional values and blindly following traditions, such as apartheid

Readers of the New Yorker responded more to this story than any story previously published in a largely negative fashion. Subscriptions were cancelled, and most mail expressed both confusion and anger.

Sources

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

Franklin, Ruth. "“The Lottery” Letters." New Yorker. 2013. Retrieved January 27, 2018 from https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-lottery-letters

McCarthy, Erin. "11 Facts About Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"." Mental Floss. Retrieved January 27, 2018 from http://mentalfloss.com/article/57503/11-facts-about-shirley-jacksons-lottery

Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." The Lottery and Other Stories. Modern Library. New York, 1949.


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Posted
AuthorBanned Library
CategoriesShort Story
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey 110
ST Harker

A man trying to escape prison finds himself locked up in the worst way in this psychadelic novel about conformity, individuality, and sanity.

Banned

#49 ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

1971 - Colorado - Challenged in Greenley public school district as non-required reading.

1974 - Ohio - Five residents sued the board of education to remove the book from classrooms, saying it was "pornographic" and ”glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination."

1975

New York - removed from Randolph public schools

Oklahoma - removed from Alton public schools

1977 - Maine - Removed from required reading list in Westport

1978 - Idaho - Banned from Freemont High School in St. Anthony and the instructor was terminated.

1982 - New Hampshire - challenged in Merrimack high school

1986 - Washington - challenged but retained in Aberdeen high school for use in honors English for promoting "secular humanism"

2000 - California - Parents at the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District complained about profanity and sexual situations and petitioned to have the book removed. Parent of children aged 7,8, and 17 Anna Marie Buckner said "It teaches how very easy it is to smother somebody. I don't want to put these kinds of images in children's minds. They're going to think that when they get mad at their parents, they can just ax them out."

Sources

ALA. "Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century." ALA. 2018. Retrieved on 2018 Jaunuary 26 from http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bbwlinks&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=136590

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 18 Jan 26 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Baldassarro, R. Wolf. "Banned Books Awareness: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey." world.edu. 2012. Retrieved 2018 January 26 from http://world.edu/banned-books-awareness-flew-cuckoos-nest-ken-kesey/

Biography.com. "Ken Kesey Biography.com." The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. March 23, 2016. Retrieved 2018 January 26 from https://www.biography.com/people/ken-kesey-9363911

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Viking. 1962; 2002.

Tran, Mai. "Parents Ask School District to Ban 'Cuckoo's Nest.'" LA Times. 2000. Retrieved 2018 January 26 from http://articles.latimes.com/2000/dec/03/local/me-60611


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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/