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BANNED AND CHALLENGED BOOKLIST
Since 1990, the American Library Association has recorded over 8,000 formal complaints about library materials. They estimate five times that number of complaints were handled informally or were unreported. The list below is drawn from the American Library Association as well as other sources. If you are interested in learning more about banned and challenged books, call your library!
Adult Nonfiction
Biography
Adult Fiction
Young Adult Fiction
Children's Nonfiction
Children's Fiction
Adult Nonfiction
The American Heritage Dictionary. (423 AME) A dictionary of the English language. Removed from school libraries due to objectionable language.
**Bellesiles, Michael A. Arming America (363.33 BEL) 2003. This book tells how gun ownership in America is a recent trend, not a historical right. Banned for alleged inaccuracies and the author's political viewpoint. The request to have it reclassified as Fiction was denied.
Breton, Laurie. Final Exit (179.7 HUM) 1992. The practicalities of self-deliverance, assisted suicide and the right to die.
Brown, Dee Alexander. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (978.004 BRO). Written from the Native American perspective, it was banned as "un-American" due to its "slanted" point of view.
Confucius. The Analects of Confucius (181.112 CONFUCIU) 400 BC. The work contains Confucius's thoughts on a wide variety of subjects, including proper personal conduct, family relations, education, and government.
Dante, Alighieri. The Divine Comedy (851.15 DANTE) 1497. Prohibited by church authorities until all copies were delivered to the Inquisition for correction.
Fossey, Dian. Gorillas in the Mist (599.884 FOS). Hailed by scientists as a remarkable 14-year study of the endangered mountain gorillas, it was censored or banned in schools because of its descriptions of gorilla mating behavoirs.
Freud, Sigmund. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (150.195 FRE) 1969. The Viennese father of psychoanalysis and free association, Freud hypothesized that the sexual drive (or "libido") lay behind many unconscious desires.
Griffin, John Howard. Black Like Me (301.451 Griffin) 1962. A journalist leaves his privileged Southern white life, darkens his skin and immerses himself in black society until he can no longer stand the racism.
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf (943.085 HITLER) 1943. Adolf Hitler's autobiography that contains his economic, social, and political philosophy, as well as his aims and his methods.
The Holy Bible (220.52 BIB)The Koran. (297 ROD) Both books have been removed, banned and burned by civil and religious authorities throughout history.
Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (192.2 LOC) 1955. A theory of knowledge that was forbidden at Oxford University in 1701.
Matthiessen, Peter. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (305.897) 1983. American Indian political awareness and government relations with the Oglala Idians.
Stewart, Jon. America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. (814.54 STE) Award-winning bestseller was banned by the Pascagoula, Mississippi's library board because it contained an offensive image of the U.S. Surpreme Court judges.
Wittman, Walt. Leaves of Grass (811 WHIT) 1855. A famous collection of poetry, withdrawn for the use of explicit language.Biography
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (BIO ANGELOU) 1969. A biography of the award winning African American author suppressed for racism, homosexuality, sexual content, offensive language and unsuited to age group.
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. (BIO KAYSEN) In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen was sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls. Challenged for its strong language and vivid descriptions.
Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl (BIO FRANK) 1947. A young girl's diary describing the lives of eight people who hide to avoid arrest by the Nazis. Challenged by parents due to sexually explicit passages.
Wolff, Tobias. This Boy's Life: A Memoir (BIO WOLFF) Rebellious teen Toby is pitted against his overbearing, tyrannical stepfather in this slice-of-life drama set in the 1950's Pacific Northwest.
Adult Fiction
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale (FIC ATWOOD) 1998. The United States is portrayed as a religious dictatorship with women’s rights severely restricted. Readers have objected to this book on political grounds.
Auel, Jean M. The Clan of the Cave Bear (FIC AUEL) 1980. A novel about Prehistoric people during a glacial epoch with the female protagonist, Ayla. Challenged for its graphic sexual content.
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange (FIC BURGESS) 1986. Depicts a harrowing journey through a near-future world of decaying cities, murderous adolescents and nightmarish technologies of punishment and crime.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (FIC DOYLE) 1929. English detective and mystery stories, banned for its references to occultism and spiritualism.
Dickey, Eric Jerome. The Other Woman (FIC DICKEY) Described as "too sexually explicit".
Elllis, Bret Easton. American Psycho (FIC ELLIS) 1991. A young, handsome man with a Harvard education and success on Wall Street has terrible urges for women, greed, and murder.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby (FIC FITZGERALD) 1953. A story about relationships in upper class Long Island, New York was challenged for its language and sexual references.
Gaines, Ernest. A Lesson Before Dying (FIC GAINES). Sex, violence and profanity have kept this 1999 CNY Reads pick out of some AP English classes.
Grisham, John. A Time to Kill (FIC GRISHAM) "Challenged, but retained in the Fargo, ND High School advanced English classes, despite complaints about the novel's graphic rape and murder scenes."
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (FIC HADDON) Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. "The book could pollute young minds."
Heller, Joseph. Catch-22 (FIC HELLER) 1961. A satirical story about world wars, set during World War II.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World (FIC and YA HUXLEY) 1946. The story is a fantastic fiction, with propaganda, brainwashing and violence.
Kazantzakis, Nikos. The Last Temptation of Christ (FIC KAZANTZAKIS) 1960.Jesus, is portrayed as human and divine, but subject to all temptations, including sexual ones.
Lawrence, D. H. . Lady Chatterley's Lover (FIC LAWRENCE) 1928. This book was the object of numerous obscenity trials in both the United Kingdom and the United States up into the 1960s.
Lee, Harper . To Kill a Mockingbird (FIC LEE) A story of two children, Scout and Jem Finch, and their father, Atticus, a Southern lawyer appointed to defend a Negro on a rape charge. Challenged because it contains profanity and promotes racial hatred.
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind (FIC MITCHELL). Objections to Scarlett's three marriages and business ethics and the book's offensive language prevented this award winner from appearing on high school reading lists.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye (FIC MORRISON). Banned due to its sexual content and objectionable language.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita (FIC NABOKOV) challenged in the Marion Levy public Library System in Florida as to whether or not passages in it meet the state law's definition of "unsuitable for minors".
Orwell, George. 1984 (FIC ORWELL) 1949. Set in a nightmarish (futuristic) London where the truth doesn’t exist, but “Big Brother” does.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Choke: A Novel. (FIC PALAHNIUK) Described as being "too sexually explicit".
Parsons, Alexander. Leaving Disneyland. (FIC PARSONS) To find this novel look in the library's catalog under African American Prisoners or Drug Traffic or Ex-convicts or Washington, D.C. Banned in Carroll county, MD schools. No reason given.Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar (FIC PLATH) 1971. A dark autobiographical fiction about a writing intern at the beginning of her mental decline.
Proulx, Annie. Brokeback Mountain. (FIC PROULX) It's 1963, a time in the United States when life was simple, straightforward and the lines between the sexes and sex roles were crisply drawn and severely delineated. then Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist find themselves working together on Brokeback Mountain.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye (FIC SALINGER) 1951. A story spanning a few days in the life of cynical New York City teen, who has just been expelled from school. Edgy slang has kept this book on challenged book lists.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle (FIC SINCLAIR) 1965. Poverty, disease, despair and barbarous working conditions in the slaughter houses of Chicago in 1900.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels (FIC SWI) 1909. In fantastic lands, Gulliver meets little people, giants, men who live on a floating island and other creatures.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple (FIC WALKER) 1982. Pulitzer prize winning novel about African American family life, challenged due to sexual and social explicitness and troubling ideas about race relations, God, and human sexuality.
Winsor, Kathleen. Forever Amber (FIC WINSOR) 1944. Historical fiction suppressed on sexual grounds.
Young Adult Fiction
Blume, Judy. Forever (YA FIC BLUME) 1975. Two high school seniors believe their love to be so strong that it will last forever.
Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. (YA FIC CHBOSKY) challenged due to its gay-positive theme.
Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War (YA FIC CORMIER) 1988. A high school freshman experiences consequences of refusing to join in the fund raising drive, angering school bullies. Challenged for sexual content, offensive language and religious viewpoint.
Crutcher, Chris. Chinese Handcuffs. (YA FIC CRUTCHER) Still troubled by his older brother's violent suicide. eighteen-year-old Dillon becomes deeply involved in the terrible secret of his friend jennifer, who feels she can tell no one what her stepfather is doing to her.
Crutcher, Chris. Ironman. (YA FIC CRUTCHER) While training for a triathlon, Bo attends an anger management goup at school.
Crutcher, Chris. The Sledding Hill. (YA FIC CRUTCHER) Billy, recently deceased, keeps an eye on his best friend, Eddie, and helps him stand up to a conservative minister and English teacher who is orchestrating a censorship challenge.
Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. (YA FIC CRUTCHER) Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial adopted teenager, agress to form a swimming team and recruits some of his high shool's less popular students. Removed from several high school libraries of of the book's use of profanity.
Elish, Dan. Born Too Short: The Confessions of an Eighth-Grade Basket Case. (YA FIC ELISH) Matt is so envious of his best friend keith that he wishes things would go badly for him. When Keith's fortune changes, matt is overcome with guilt. Banned in Carrolll County, MD schools.
Go Ask Alice. (YA FIC GO) 1971. A fifteen-year-old drug user chronicles her struggle to escape the drug world. The author remains anonymous.
Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. (YA FIC MACKLER) Fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her. Multi-award-winning story was banned by the Carroll County Superintendent in Westminster, MD for its use of profanity and its sexual references.
Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels (YA FIC MYERS) 1988. A seventeen-year-old from Harlem experiences a devastating year in 1967 on active duty in Vietnam. Challenged for racism, offensive language and violence.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Alice on the Outside (YA FIC NAYLOR) Eighth-grader Alice has many questions about sex, relationships, prejudice, and change.
Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die (YA FIC PECK) 1972. A farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, matures early as he learns "doing what's got to be done."
Wersba, Barbara. Whistle Me Home. (YA FIC WERSBA) The author does not shy away from homosexuality and alsholism in this story of seventeen-year-old Noli who feels as if she has found her sould mate when handsome, sensitive TJ moves to Sag Harbor.
Yep, Lawrence. Dragonwings (YA FIC YEP) 1975. A young Chinese boy in the early1900s joins his father in San Francisco and helps him realize his dream of making a flying machine.
Children’s Nonfiction
Cole, Babette. Mommy Laid an Egg! (J 649.65 COL) 1993. Two children explain to their parents, using their own drawings, where babies come from.
Harris, Robie. It's Perfectly Normal (J 613,907 HARRIS) 1994.A book about changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health.
Peters, Lisa Westberg. Our Family Tree: An Evolutionary Stroy. (JA 576.8 PET) Relates the evolution of the family of mankind, from single cells in the sea to human beings with "big brains that wonde who we are." Considered one-sided. It only contains the scientific theory of evolution.
Schwartz, Alvin. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat (J 001.9 SCH) 1974. Addresses superstitions about love and marriage, money, ailments, the weather, and death.
Willhoite, Michael.Daddy's Roommate. (PICTURE BOOK 306.738 WIL) 1990. A young boy discusses his divorced father's new living situation, in which the father and his gay roommate share chores, playing, loving, and living.
Children’s Fiction
Bannerman, Helen. The Story of Little Black Sambo. (J E BANNERMAN) A retelling of the well-known tale in which a little black boy finally outwits the succession of tigers that want to eat him. It spells out why the story fell into disfavor.
Blume, Judy. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (J FIC BLUME) 1970. Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve-year-old girl talks over her problems with her own private God.
**Carr, Jan. Dark Day, Light Night. (J E CARR) Manda's Aunt Ruby helps her to deal with some angry fellings by making lists of all the things that they like in the world. Some adults feel the story has too much violence.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (J FIC CARROLL) 1900. By falling down a rabbit hole, Alice experiences unusual adventures with a variety of nonsensical characters. Story contains expletives, sexual fantasies and derogatory characterizations of a teacher and religion.
Dahl, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (J FIC DAHL) 1987. Five children visit a mysterious chocolate factory. The tour brings out the best and worst in them. This book was challenged for supporting a poor philosophy of life.
Dahl, Roald. James and the Giant Peach (J FIC DAHL). One more of Dahl's classic tales that has been challenged by parents for it's violence toward adults and encouragement of children to lead "unhealthy lifestyles."
**Deedy, Carmen Ayer. The Library Dragon. (J E DEEDY) Miss Lotta Scales is a dragon who believes her job is to protect books from children, but when she realizes tha books are meant to be read, the dragon turns into Miss Lotty, librarian and storyteller. The parent objected to frequent references to fire.
Kotz, William, and Glenn Murray. Walter the Farting Dog. (J E KOTZWINKLE) challenged, but retained in the West Salem, Wis. Elementary School despite the book's use of the word "fart" and "farting" 24 times. A real child pleaser when read aloud.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. (J and YA FIC LOWRY) A young boy from a seemingly utopian world, is singled out to receive special training from The Giver, who alone holds the memories of the true joys and pain of life. Considered "lewd" and "twisted" by some.
Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia. (J FIC PATERSON) A ten-year-old boy becomes friends with a newcomer who meets and untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.
Patron, Susan. The Higher Power of Lucky. (J FIC PATRON) Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble determines to run away. Challenged due to an attention grabbing phrase in the first chapter.
Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia (J FIC PATERSON) 1977. A ten-year-old boy becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.
Pilkey, Dave. Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (J FIC PILKEY) 2001. Captain Underpants saves the world and the school from the evil talking toilets and the Turbo Toilet 2000. Challenged for offensive language and modeling bad behavior.
Richardson, Justin and Peter Parnell. And Tango Makes Three. (J E RICHARDSON) At New York City's Central park Zoo, two male penguins take turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches. "Homesexual undertones."
Rockwell, Thomas. How to Eat Fried Worms (J FIC ROCKWELL) 1973. Two boys set out to prove that worms can make a delicious meal.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (J FIC ROWLING) Removed by the Wilsona School District trustees in San Gabriel, CA because it is about a wizard.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J FIC ROWLING) 1999. Based at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, student Harry Potter finds himself in danger from a dark power.
Sendak, Maurice. In the Night Kitchen (PICTURE BOOK SENDAK) 1970. A little boy's dream-fantasy in where he helps three fat bakers get milk for their cake batter. Challenged for nudity and offensive language.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (J FIC TWAIN) 1918. Suppressed on social grounds.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House on the Prairie (J FIC WILDER). Cited and banned for numerous derogatory statements about Native Americans.** Challenged in the City of Syracuse
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