I Saw Esau by Iona and Peter Opie
What happens when some folklorists gather together all the children's rhymes and have them illustrated by a master children's illustrator?
Read MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A woman told to rest for her own good goes slowly insane in a room with yellow wallpaper… or does she? She totally does.
Sources
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "Yellow Wallpaper." 1982.
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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/
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
David did a bad thing and gets cursed by an old lady while figuring out who his friends are and what middle fingers are for.
Banned
#92 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
1991 - California - Challenged at Thousand Oaks Library for language
1993
California - Challenged at San Ramon's Golden View Elementary school for profanity, frequent use of obscene gestures, and inappropriate subject matter
Indiana - Removed from Clay City's Jackson Township Elementary School due to "unsuitable words."
New York - Removed from Red Creek's Cuyler Elementary school library because "the age level and use of some swear words may make it inappropriate for younger children."
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.
Sachar, Louis. The Boy Who Lost His Face. Yearling Books. 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/
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
We follow the ups and downs and rapes of a Chilean family for several mystical generations.
Banned
#97 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
1994 - California - Challenged due to accounts of sexual encounters and violence but retained at Paso Robles High School
1997 - Virginia - Challenged but retained at Brentsville's Stonewall Jackson High School for sexual explicitness
1998 - Maryland - Challenged at Montgomery County reading lists and school library shelves as obscene
1999 - California - Challenged in Encinitas at La Costa Canyon High School as it "defames" the Catholic faith and contains "pornographic passages"
2000 - California
Challenged but retained at Fairfield Unified School District as "immoral and sexually depraved"
Challenged and retained for being "immoral and sexually depraved" at Suisun City Unified School District
2003 - California - Challenged but retained at Modesto, with the Modesto City School Board advising that parents given annotations and information of any text with the option of opting out
2013 - North Carolina - Challenged due to the book's graphic nature at Watauga County High School and retained after three appeals.
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.
Allende, Isabele. House of the Spirits. Alfred A. Knopf. 1982.
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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/
Grendel by John Gardner
We learn that a monster known to be a crazy bloodthirsty tornado of violence is really just a bit of a thinker. With claws.
Banned
#96 on Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
1978 - Maryland - Challenged at Frederick County Schools for being "anti-christian, anti-moral, and violent."
1986
California - At Wasco High School the principal felt it was "profane," and created a restricted list of books, this being the first and only book on the list. All students had to have parental permission before they could study the book.
Indiana - Challenged in an Indianapolis accelerated English class
1991 - Utah - Challenged as obscene in Farmington's Viewmont High School
1992 - New Jersey - Challenged but retained at Bass River Township's Pineland Regional High School for obscenities
1993 - Georgia - Challenged in Clayton County Schools in Jonesboro for being violent and graphic
1997 - Colorado - Challenged but retained at Douglas County schools for being obscene and violent. The school board also declined to create a book rating system.
2008 - Oregon - Challenged but retained at Sherwood School District for torture and mutilation
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.
Gardner, John. Grendel. Vintage Books. New York, 1971.
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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/
Voicemails (2019)
A librarian gets in trouble when he agrees to transcribe the voicemails of an older patron.
Shade's Children by Garth Nix
When all the adults have vanished and overlords have taken over, a bunch of super-powered kids have sex and save the planet.
Banned
#95 on Top 100 Banned/Challenged books: 2000-2009
2001 - New York - Williamsville's Transit Middle School retained after the book was challenged for being "vulgar, obscene, and educationally unsuitable."
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.
Nix, Garth. Shade's Children. HarperCollins. New York, 1997.
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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/
Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger
A not-so-banned book describing a town obsessed with high school football.
Banned
#89 on Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
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
Bissinger, HG. Friday Night Lights. Da Capo Press. Boston, MA, 1990.
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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/
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
A young girl befriends wolves and makes her way across the tundra looking for where she belongs.
Banned
#91 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
1982 - Missouri - Challenged for "socialist, communist, evolutionary, and anti-family themes" in Mexico.
1989 - Colorado - Challenged as sixth grade reading because "the subject matter was better suited to older students" in Littleton school libraries
1994 - Arizona - After a Erie Elementary School teacher in Chandler chose the book for an Antarctic unit, some parents challenged the book for a passage "in which a man forcibly kisses his wife."
1995 - California - Challenged in Palmdale school libraries for description of a rape
1996
California - Challenged in Ramona's Hanson Lane Elementary School for including an attempted rape of a thirteen-year-old girl
Pennsylvania - Removed for a graphic martial rape scene from the sixth-grade curriculum of the New Brighton Area School District in Pulaski Township
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.
George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves. Harper & Row. New York, 1972.
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Help support the podcast on Patreon
"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
Moby navigates water and religion and abortion and all kinds of difficult topics that are way worse than the language for which it was challenged.
Banned
2011 - Wisconsin - A parent at the Belleville High School complained the book on the ninth grade required reading list was "pornography" and had "pervasively vulgar" language, but the school board decided to keep the book.
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
Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Greenwillow Books. New York, 1993.
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.
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. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/