Mohonasen Central School District

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Banned Books Week

~~ Celebrate your freedom to read! ~~

See below for a list of books in our collection that have been, at one time or another, challenged or banned from library collections. Want to read them? See if they’re available in our CATALOG.

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings : Challenged for sexual content, racism, offensive language, violence and being unsuited to age group

Anonymous. Go Ask Alice : Challenged for sexual content, offensive language, and drug use

Atwood, Margaret. A Handmaid’s Tale : Challenged for sexual content and violence, as well as political and religious themes

Auel, Jean M. The Clan of the Cave Bear : Challenged for “hardcore graphic sexual content”

The Bible : Challenged for being “obscene and pornographic,” and for containing stories of incest and murder

Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange : Challenged for “objectionable language”

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales : Challenged for sexual content and obscenity

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower : Challenged for homosexuality and offensive language

Cormier, Robert. I Am the Cheese : Challenged for crude and vulgar language, for sexual content, and a “morbid and depressing” theme

------. The Chocolate War : Challenged for sexual content, offensive language, religious viewpoint, being unsuited to age group and violence

-----. We All Fall Down : Challenged for sexual themes, offensive language, and for “glorifying alcoholism and violence”

-----. Fade : Challenged for sexual content and violence

Crutcher, Chris. Athletic Shorts : Challenged for themes of divorce, violence, AIDS, and homosexuality; shows a “lack of respect for parents and God”

-----. Running Loose : Challenged for sexual content

Duncan, Lois. Killing Mr. Griffin : Challenged for violence, language, and “unflattering references to God”

Garden, Nancy. Annie On My Mind : Challenged for “promoting and encouraging a gay lifestyle”

George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves : Challenged for themes of rape, communism, and for being “anti-family”

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies : Challenged for subject matter, excessive violence, and offensive language

Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier : Challenged for racial stereotypes and profanity

-----. The Drowning of Stephan Jones : Challenged for homosexuality and “anti-Christian beliefs”

Guest, Judith. Ordinary People : Challenged for themes of teenage suicide, obscene language, and sexual content

Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars : Challenged for being “sexually explicit”

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22 : Challenged for offensive language and graphic violence, as well as being “completely sick”

Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders : Challenged for “excessive violence and obscenities,” as well as for glamorizing smoking and drinking

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World : Challenged for being “sordid, immoral, and obscene,” and for “vilifying the family”

Kantor, MacKinlay. Andersonville : Challenged for “obscenity and filth,” offensive language, and immorality

Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon : Challenged for sexual content and alcoholism

King, Stephen. Cujo : Challenged for profanity, violence, and explicit sexual content; “not suitable for high school students”

Koertge, Ron. Arizona Kid : Challenged because it “promotes homosexuality”

Knowles, John. A Separate Peace : Challenged for graphic language

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird : Challenged because it conflicts with the values of the community

L’Engle, Madeline. A Wrinkle in Time : Challenged because it undermines religious beliefs

Lowry, Lois. The Giver : Banned for violence, offensive language, explicit sexuality, and for themes of infanticide and euthanasia

Mathabane, Mark. Kaffir Boy: A True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa : Challenged for themes of molestation and homosexuality

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye : Challenged for graphic sexual content, and for vulgar and obscene language

-----. Beloved : Challenged for violence

Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels : Challenged for racism, offensive language and graphic violence

Orwell, George. 1984 : Challenged for containing “procommunist and explicitly sexual material.”

------. Animal Farm : Challenged for communist theories and using the phrase “masses will revolt”

Patterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia : Challenged for offensive language and occult/Satanism

Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die : Challenged for language, sexual themes, and its “negative views of life”

Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar : Challenged for “objectionable lifestyles,” obscenity, and language

Rowling, J. K. The Harry Potter books: Challenged for focus on wizardry and magic, for an “occult theme or promoting the occult or Satanism”

Salinger, J. D. Catcher in the Rye : Challenged for profanity

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice : Challenged for being “anti-Semitic”

--------. Twelfth Night : Challenged because it “encourages homosexuality”

Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic : Challenged because it promotes “disrespect, horror, and violence” and is too negative and dreary

Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn't Know  : Challenged for sexual content and offensive language

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men : Challenged for offensive language, it’s treatment of the retarded, and the violent ending

----------. The Grapes of Wrath : Challenged because it uses the names of God and Jesus “in a vain and profane manner”

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn : Challenged for racism, insensitivity and offensive language

Voltaire. Candide : Challenged for obscenity

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple : Challenged for being sexually explicit and using offensive language

Wright, Richard. Native Son : Challenged for violence and graphic sexual content

Zindel, Paul. The Pigman : Challenged for being unsuitable for youth

 Maintained according to Mohonasen Central School District Web Publishing Regulations by
Emer O'Keeffe, High School Librarian, Mohonasen High School,
2072 Curry Road, Schenectady, N.Y. 12303, (518) 356-8330
©2001 Mohonasen Central School District - All rights reserved.
Last modified on 12.11.2008