Banned Books Week Focuses on Young Adult Novels (September 27- October 3)

Young Adult books are the focus of Banned Books Week in 2015. Banned Books Week, the annual celebration of the freedom to read, will run from September 27 through October 3, 2015, and will be observed in libraries, schools, bookstores and other community settings across the nation and the world.

“Young Adult books are challenged more frequently than any other type of book,” said Judith Platt, chair of the Banned Books Week National Committee. “These are the books that speak most immediately to young people, dealing with many of the difficult issues that arise in their own lives, or in the lives of their friends. These are the books that give young readers the ability to safely explore the sometimes scary real world. This Banned Books Week is a call to action, to remind everyone that young people need to be allowed the freedom to read widely, to read books that are relevant for them, and to be able to make their own reading choices.”

In recent years, the majority of the most frequently challenged books in libraries have been Young Adult (YA) titles. Six YA titles were on the list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2014, according to the American Library Association. Attempted bans on books of all kinds also frequently occur under the guise of protecting younger audiences.

Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read by encouraging read-outs, displays, and community activities that raise awareness of the ongoing threat of censorship. Last year, tens of thousands of people participated in Banned Books Week online.  More than 500 videos were posted in a virtual read-out, and thousands participated in hundreds of events in bookstores, libraries, and schools and universities across the country.

Do yourself a freedom favor and read a banned Young Adult book this week!

Here is the ALA's list of frequenlty challenged YA title from the past year:

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
2. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon Books/Knopf Doubleday) 
3. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston)
4. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (Bloomsbury Publishing) 
5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (MTV Books/Simon & Schuster)
6. Drama, by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix/Scholastic)
7. Chinese Handcuffs, by Chris Crutcher (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins) 
8. The Giver, by Lois Lowry (HMH Books for Young Readers)
9. The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros (Vintage/Knopf Doubleday) 
10. Looking for Alaska, by John Green (Dutton Books/Penguin Random House)

Discussing Banned and Challenged Books is Not Only for September

I realize that Banned Book Week every September is important to keep this important issue in front of the public.  But it's also necessary to discuss issues like censorship year round as well.

Banned booked are books that have actually been removed from a library or school system, a challenged book is the attempt to ban. Read about these challenged books and authors, including Katherine Paterson, Madeleine L'Engle, James Marshall, Roald Dahl and more.

Most of these books listed below were challenged for being sexually explicit, containing offensive language, or being unsuitable for the age group, and most were challenged because they were included on a suggested reading list for students, part of a class assignment, or available in a school library.  However, many of these books have received high accolades for teaching tolerance and understanding of others.  According to the ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano:

Not every book is right for every person, but providing a wide range of reading choices is vital for learning, exploration, and imagination. The abilities to read, speak, think, and express ourselves freely are core American values.


The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees our right to free speech, which includes the right to read and write books that might be considered by some to be too violent or offensive. Because this freedom is one of our fundamental rights as Americans, some people feel that any form of censorship is wrong. Most people fall somewhere in the middle, believing that people should be free to read whatever they choose, but that in some rare instances censorship is acceptable.

Have a look at a partial list of banned books below.  I think you will be surprised at the extent of them.  

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

• was discontinued from use in a middle school in West Virginia
• Montana students fought to keep it on the shelves in their school
• was compared to Fifty Shades of Grey in a challenge by a mother in New York

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

• was removed, then reinstated, in an Idaho classroom

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

• has met multiple challenges in North Carolina

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

• was challenged in schools in Iowa

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

• was challenged, but stayed on the school library shelves in Minnesota

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

• was challenged in Kentucky

The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

• was challenged in North Carolina

The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time by Mark Haddon

• was challenged in Pennsylvania schools but ultimately retained

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone

• was challenged by parents, but kept in a Virginia school

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

• In Georgia, a parent complained about it being included on a long list of books from which students could select a title for an assignment

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky

• was reinistated in classes in Illinois when Judy Blume (whose books are also frequently challenged) supported its use in classrooms

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

• was kept in classrooms in Illinois after being challenged

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

• wasn’t “banned” according to officials in Illinois, just removed from the 7th grade curriculum 

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

• was challenged in New Mexico for being on a high school reading list