banned books and why censorship makes me laugh

The Pulitzer Prize winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been banned from school libraries and denounced for so-called racial slurs and profanity.

The American Library Association keeps a database of objectionable reads and publishes a ‘Most Frequently Challenged Books List’. The list is a melting pot of celebrated authors including Harper Lee, Judy Blume, JK Rowling, Roald Dahl and Toni Morrison.

The ALA have teamed up with Yahoo! to promote Banned Books Week and to encourage “free people to read freely”.

If you’d like to join the rebellion may I recommend one of my personal favourties, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. Maya Angelou’s autobiographical masterpiece has been near the top of The list for over two decades.

If that doesn’t illicit a jaw-dropping ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ response, maybe this will.

In no particular order, a selection of the most controversial, most challenged and yes, pity upon pity, most banned books of the last ten years.

1. “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
2. “Harry Potter” (the series) by JK Rowling
3. “Beloved” by Toni Morrison
4. “The Outsiders” by SE Hinton
5. “Lolita” by Vladmir Nabokov
6. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
7. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
8. “How to Eat Fried Worms” by Thomas Rockwell
9. “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
10. “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

Go on. Knock yourself out.

*See More Challenged/Banned Classics. Also, for giggles check out the ALA. You’ll find Worms between “Girls and Sex” and “View from a Cherry Tree”.