1984
George Orwell
PR6029.R8 N56 1981SSH Stacks

1981
Challenged in Jackson County, Fla. Because Orwell's novel is "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter."

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
PS1305 .A1 1925 XX SSH Stacks

2002
Challenged in the Portland, Oregon schools by an African American student who said he was offended by an ethnic slur used in the 1885 novel.

2003
Challenged in the Normal, Illinois Community High Schools sophomore literature class as being degrading to African Americans.

2004
Pulled from reading lists at the three Renton, Washington high schools after an African American student said the book degraded her and her culture. The novel, which is not required reading in Renton schools but is on a supplemental list of approved books, was eventually retained for classroom usage.

The Affluent Society
John Kenneth Galbraith
HC 106.5 G32 1969

1972
The board of education of Roselle, New Jersey, voted to remove The Affluent Society from a high school library list. It was among 520 titles identified as reference texts for a federally funded course in American studies. The removal was initiated by John Everett, president of the board, who lined out this title and three others - The Age of Keynes by Robert Lekachman, The Struggle for Peace by Leonard Beaton and Today's Isms: Communism, Facism, Capitalism, Socialism by William Ebstein - just before the board took action to approve the program. His argument was "I will do anything to thwart permissive liberalism." The board voted 4-3 in support of removing the titles. They were later purchased by the superintendent of schools for the school system's libraries "administratively" and they would be "balanced by at least four books with conservative viewpoints."

Source: Sova, D. B. (1998). Literature suppressed on social grounds. New York, NY, Facts On File.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll

1900
Suspended from classroom use, pending review, at the Woodsville High School in Haverhill, New Hampshire, because the novel contains expletives, references to masturbation and sexual fantasies, and derogatory characterizations of a teachers and of religious ceremonies.

1931
Banned by the Chinese Governor of Hunan Province on the ground that "Animals should not use human language, and that it was disastrous to put animals and human beings on the same level."

Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.
Luis J. Rodriguez
HV6439.U7 L77 1993 SSH Stacks

1998
Challenged, but retained, on the San Jose, California Unified School District optional reading list at district high school despite complaints that the book is “pornographic and offensive in its stereotyping of Latinos.” The book will be kept in libraries, but students must have parental consent to check it out.

2003
Challenged, but retained in three Beyer High School classrooms in Modesto, California despite complaints that the book is “pornographic.” The decision reversed the actions of district administrators who had removed the book in early November 2003. The book won the Chicago Sun Times Carl Sandburg Literary Award and was designated as a New York Times notable book.

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
PE1628 .A54 2000 SSH Controlled Circulation

1976
Removed in school libraries in Anchorage, Alaska, Cedar Lake, Indiana, Eldon, Missouri (1977), and Folsom, California (1982), due to “objectionable language.”

1993
Challenged, but retained, in the Churchill County, Nevada, school libraries. The controversy began after another dictionary was removed due to “objectionable language.” It was removed from, and later returned to, classrooms in Washoe County, Nevada.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
D810.J4 F715 SSH Stacks

1982
Challenged in Wise County, Virginia due to protests of several parents who complained the book contains sexually offensive passages.

1983
Four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee called for the rejection of this title because it is a “real downer.”

1998
Removed for two months from the Baker Middle School in Corpus Christi, Texas after two parents charged that the book was pornographic. The book was returned after students waged a letter-writing campaign to keep it, and the review committee recommended the book’s retention.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Judy Blume
PS3552.L843 A73 1974 SSH Stacks

1983
Challenged at the Xenia, Ohio school libraries because the book “is built around just two themes: sex and anti-Christian behavior.”

1983
After the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union sued the Elk River, Minnesota School Board, the Board reversed its decision to restrict this title to students who have written permission from their parents.

1985
Challenged as profane, immoral, and offensive, but retained in the Bozeman, Montana school libraries.

The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
PS3566.L27 B4 SSH Stacks

1979
Prohibited for use in the Warsaw, Indiana schools.

1981
Challenged in Edwardsville, Illinois when three hundred residents signed a petition against Plath’s novel because it contains sexual material and advocates an “objectionable” philosophy of life.

1998
Challenged for use in the Richland, Washington high school English classes along with six other titles because the “books are poor-quality literature and stress suicide, illicit sex, violence and hopelessness.”

The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
PS3563.O8749 B58 1972 SSH Stacks

1994
Banned from the Morrisville, Pa. Borough High School English Curriculum after complaints of its sexual content and objectionable language.

1995
Challenged on the optional summer reading list at the Lynn, Mass. Schools because of the book's sexual content.

1999
Removed from the reading list for ninth- and tenth-graders at Stevens High School in Claremont, NH because of a parent's complaint about the book's sexual content.

2003
Challenged, but retained at the Kern High School District in Bakersfield, California despite complaints of the book’s sexually explicit material.

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
PR6015.U9 B7 1969 SSH Stacks

2000
Removed from the Foley, Alabama High School library pending review, because a parent complained that its characters showed contempt for religion, marriage and the family. The parent complained to the school and to Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

2003
Challenged, but retained, in the South Texas Independent School District in Mercedes, Texas. Parents objected to the adult themes- sexuality, drugs, and suicide- found in the novel. Huxley’s book was part of the summer Science Academy curriculum. The board voted to give parents more control over their children’s choices by requiring principals to automatically offer an alternative to a challenged book.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Dee Brown
E81 .B75 SSH Stacks

1974
Removed in Wild Rose, Wis. by a district administrator because the book was "slanted" and "if there's a possibility that something might be controversial, then why not eliminate it."

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
PS3537.A426 C3 SSH Stacks

1960
A teacher was fired in Tulsa, Ok. for assigning the book to an eleventh grade English class.

1982
The book was removed from the school libraries in Morris, Manitoba, along with two other books because they violated a committee's guidelines covering "excess vulgar language, sexual scenes, things concerning moral issues, excessive violence, and anything dealing with the occult."

1989
The book was banned from the classrooms in Boron High School in California because it contains profanity.

1993
It was challenged as required reading at Corona-Norco Unified School District in California because it is "centered around negative activity," but the book was retained and teachers selected alternatives if students objected to Salinger's novel.

2000
Banned, but later reinstated after community protests at the Windsor Forest High School in Savannah, Ga. The controversy began in early 1999 when a parent complained about sex, violence, and profanity in the book that was part of an advanced placement English class.

2001
Removed by a Dorchester District 2 school board member in Summerville, South Carolina because it “is a filthy, filthy book.”

The Color Purple
Alice Walker
PS3573.A425 C6 1992 SSH Stacks

1999
Removed from the Ferguson High School library in Newport News, Virginia. Students may request and borrow the book with parental approval.

2002
Challenged, along with seventeen other titles in the Fairfax County, Virginia elementary and secondary libraries, by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools. The group contends the books “contain profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct, and torture.”

The Crucible
Arthur Miller
PS3525.I5156 C7 1978 SSH Stacks

1982
Challenged at the Cumberland Valley High School, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania because the play contains “sick words from the mouths of demon-possessed people. It should be wiped out of the schools or the school board should use them to fuel the fires of hell.”

1987
Challenged as a required reading assignment at the Pulaski County High School in Somerset, Kentucky because it is “junk.”

Dracula
Bram Stoker
PR6037.T617 D7 1975 SSH Oversize

1994
Eliminated from required reading lists for juniors and seniors in advanced English classes at the Colony High School in Lewisville, Texas because “the book contains unacceptable descriptions in the introduction, such as ‘Dracula is the symptom of a wish, largely sexual, that we wish we did not have.’”

Dragonwings
Laurence Yep
PZ7.Y44 Dr SSH Stacks

1992
Challenged at the Apollo-Ridge schools in Kittanning, Pennsylvania because of the frequent use of the word “demon” in the book. The Newbury Award-winning book might encourage children to “commit suicide because they think they can be reincarnated as something or someone else.” On Sept. 15, 1992, Judge Joseph Nickleach denied a request seeking to ban the book from the district’s curriculum. In his opinion, Nickleach wrote: “The fact that religions and religious concepts are mentioned in school does not automatically constitute a violation of the establishment clause.”

1999
Challenged at the Henryville, Indiana schools because of graphic violence, profanity, reference to demons and prostitution, and alcohol and drug use depicted in a positive light.

The Education of Harriet Hatfield
May Sarton
PS3537.A832 E38 1989 SSH Stacks

1995
Removed from the Mascenic Regional High School in New Ipswich, New Hampshire because it is about gays and lesbians. An English teacher was fired for refusing to remove the book.

Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
PS3503.R167 F3 XX SSH Stacks

1992
Expurgated at the Venado Middle School in Irvine, Calif.. Students received copies of the book with scores of words -- mostly "hells" and "damns" -- blacked out. The novel is about book-burning and censorship. After receiving complaints from parents and being contacted by reporters, school officials said the censored copies would no longer be used.

For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
PS3515E37 F6 1940 SSH Stacks

1941
When the Pulitzer Prize Advisory Board recommended For Whom the Bell Tolls for the 1940 prize, Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler said, "I hope that you will reconsider before you ask the University to be associated with an award for a work of this nature." There was no Pulitzer Prize for fiction for 1940. The US Post Office in the same year declared the book non-mailable.

1973
Eleven Turkish book publishers went on trial before an Istanbul martial law tribunal on charges of publishing, possessing and selling books in violation of an order of the Istanbul martial law command. They faced possible sentences of between one month's and six month's imprisonment "for spreading propaganda unfavorable to the state" and the confiscation of their books. Eight booksellers also were on trial with the publishers on the same charges.

Gorillas in the Mist
Dian Fossey
QL737.P96 F67 1983 SSH Stacks

1993
Teachers at the Westlake Middle School in Erie, Pennsylvania, using felt-tipped pens, blacked out passages pertaining to masturbation and mating.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
J. K. Rowling
PR6068.O895 H37 1998 SSH Stacks

2002
Challenged in Moscow, Russia by a Slavic cultural organization that alleged the stories about magic and wizards could draw students into Satanism.

2002
A federal judge overturned restricted access to the Harry Potter book after parents of a Cedarville, Arkansas fourth-grader filed a federal lawsuit challenging the restrictions, which required students to present written permission from a parent to borrow the book. The novel was originally challenged because it characterized authority as “stupid” and portrays “good witches and good magic.”

2003
Challenged, but retained in New Haven, Connecticut schools despite claims the series “makes witchcraft and wizardry alluring to children."

The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende
PQ 8098.1 L54 C313 1985 SSH Stacks

1999
Challenged at the La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, Calif. because the work "defames" the Catholic faith and contains "pornographic passages."

2000
Retained on the summer reading list for honors high school students at the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District, Calif. Despite objections that the book is "immoral and sexually depraved."

2003
Challenged, but retained in the advanced English classes in Modesto, California. The seven-member Modesto City School Board said administrators should instead give parents more information about the books their children read, including annotations of each text. Parents can opt their children out of any assignment they find objectionable.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Julia Alvarez
PS3551.L845 H66 1992 SSH Stacks

2002
Challenged, along with seventeen other titles in the Fairfax County, Virginia elementary and secondary libraries (2002), by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools. The group contends the books “contain profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct, and torture.”

I Am the Cheese
Robert Cormier
PZ7.C81634 Iac 1978 SSH Stacks

1985
Challenged at the Cornwell, New York, High School because the novel is “humanistic and destructive of religious and moral beliefs and of national spirit.”

1986
Banned form the Bay County’s four middle schools and three high schools in Panama City, Florida, because of “offensive” language. The controversy snowballed further on May 7, 1987, when 64 works of literature were banned from classroom teaching at Bay and Mosley High Schools by the Bay County school superintendent. After 44 parents filed a suit against the district claiming that its instructional aids policy denies constitutional rights, the Bay County School Board reinstated the books.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
PS3551.N464 Z466 1970 SSH Stacks

2000
Challenged on the Poolesville High School, Maryland reading list due to the book’s sexual content and language.

2002
Challenged as required reading for Hamilton, Montana freshman English classes. At issue are scenes in which the author explores her sexuality through intercourse as a teenager and the depiction of a rape and molestation of an 8-year-old girl; homosexuality is another theme explored in the book that has drawn criticism.

Challenged, along with seventeen other titles in the Fairfax County, Virginia elementary and secondary libraries by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools. The group contends the books “contain profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct, and torture.”

In the Night Kitchen
Maurice Sendak
PZ7.S47 In 1970 SSH Stacks

1988
Challenged at the Robeson Elementary School in Champaign, Illinois because of “gratuitous” nudity.

1989
Challenged at the Camden, New Jersey elementary school libraries because of nudity.

1992
Challenged at the Elk River, Minnesota schools because reading the book “could lay the foundation for future use of pornography.”

1994
Challenged at the El Paso, Texas Public Library because “the little boy pictured did not have any clothes on and it pictured his private area.”

The Learning Tree
Gordon Parks
PS3566.A73 L4 1963 SSH Stacks

1982
Subject of a court challenge by the Moral Majority of Washington State in Mead, Washington because it includes “objectionable material, swearing, obscene language, explicit detail of premarital sexual intercourse, other lewd behavior, specific blasphemies against Jesus Christ and excessive violence and murder.” The case was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Robert McNichols.

1991
Removed from, then restored to, a Suwannee, Florida High School library because the book is “indecent.”

1992
Challenged at the Eagan High School in Burnsville, Minnesota on the grounds that it contains vulgar and sexually explicit language, and descriptions of violent acts.

Les Miserables
Victor Hugo
PQ2286.E5 H325 SSH Stacks

1864
Listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in Rome from 1864-1959.

1904
Voted out of a library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania because it mentioned a grisette.

A Light in the Attic
Shel Silverstein
PS3569.I47224 L5 1981 SSH Stacks

1992
Restricted to students with parental permission at the Duval County, Florida public school libraries because the books features a caricature of a person whose nude behind has been stung by a bee.

1992
Challenged at the West Mifflin, Pennsylvania schools because the poem “Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony” is morbid.

1996
Challenged, but retained, on the Webb City, Missouri school library shelves. A parent had protested that the book imparts a “dreary” and “negative” message.

Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
PG3476 .N3 1987 v.10 SSH Stacks

Banned as obscene in France (1956-1959), in England (1955-59), in Argentina (1959), and in New Zealand (1960).

1982
The South African Directorate of Publications announced on Nov. 27, 1982, that Lolita had been taken off the banned list, eight years after a request for permission to market the novel in paperback had been refused.

Join us on September 29 for a screening of the 1961 film, Lolita at 8:30pm in Geisel Library's Seuss Room.

The Lorax
Dr. Seuss
PS3513.E2 L67 1971 SSH Stacks

1989
Challenged in the Laytonville, California Unified School District because the book “criminalizes the forest industry.”

Lord of the Rings
By J.R.R. Tolkien
Pr 6039 O32 L6 1965 SSH Stacks

2001
Burned in Alamagordo, New Mexico outside Christ Community Church along with other Tolkien novels as satanic.

A More Perfect Union: Why Straight America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights
By Richard D. Mohr
HQ76.3.U5 M643 1994 SSH Stacks

1996
Challenged, but retained, at the Belfast, Maine Free Library because “homosexuality destroys marriage and families; it destroys the good health of the individual and the innocent are infected by it.”

My Friend Flicka
By Mary O’Hara
PS3529.H34 M9 1941 SSH Stacks

1990
Pulled from fifth- and sixth-grade optional reading lists in Clay County, Florida schools because the book uses the word “bitch” to refer to a female dog, as well as the word “damn.”

Native Son
By Richard Wright
PS3545.R815 N3 SSH Stacks

1998
Challenged as part of the reading list for Advanced Placement English classes at Northwest High School in High Point, North Carolina. The book was challenged because it is “sexually graphic and violent.”

1998
Removed from Irvington High School in Fremont, California after a few parents complained the book was unnecessarily violent and sexually explicit.

1998
Challenged in the Hamilton High School curriculum in Fort Wayne, Indiana because of the novel’s graphic language and sexual content.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Barbara Ehrenreich
HD4918.E375 2001 SSH Stacks

2003
Criticized as the book chosen for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill summer reading program by Republican state lawmakers, citing a “pattern” of the university being anti-Christian. In 2002, three freshmen sued the university over its choice of Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations, by Michael A. Sells. The federal lawsuit was filed on the students’ behalf by the Family Policy Network, a Christian group based in Virginia. Courts later rejected the argument that the reading requirement violated the U.S. Constitution.

Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
PS3537.T3234 O34 1937 SSH Stacks

2002
Challenged as required reading at the high school in Grandville, Michigan because the book “is full of racism, profanity, and foul language.”

2002
Banned from the George County, Mississippi because of profanity.

2003
Challenged in the Normal, Illinois Community High Schools because the book contains “racial slurs, profanity, violence, and does not represent traditional values.” An alternative, Steinbeck’s The Pearl, was offered but rejected by the family challenging the novel.

One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
PQ8180.17.A73 C513 1998 SSH Stacks

1986
Purged from the book list for use at the Wasco, California Union High School because the book, whose author won the 1982 Nobel Prize for literature, was “garbage being passed off as literature.”

1990
Removed from the Advanced Placement English reading list at St. Johns High School in Darlington, South Carolina because of profane language.

1997
Challenged for sexual explicitness, but retained on the Stonewall Jackson High School’s academically advanced reading list in Brentsville, Virginia.

The Popular History of Witchcraft
Montague Summers
BF1566 .S84 1937a SSH Stacks

1986
Challenged by the “God Squad,” a group of three students and their parents, at the El Camino High School in Oceanside, California because the book “glorified the devil and the occult.”

The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie
PR9499.3.R8 S28 1989 SSH Stacks

Banned in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalis, Sudan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Qatar, Indonesia, South Africa, and India because of its criticism of Islam.

1989
Burned in West Yorkshire, England and temporarily withdrawn from two bookstores on the advice of police who took threats to staff and property seriously. In Pakistan, five people died in riots against the book. Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, stating, "I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses, which is against Islam, the prophet and the Koran and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, have been sentenced to death."

1989
Challenged at the Wichita, Kans. Public Library because the book is "blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed." In Venezuela, owning or reading it was declared a crime under penalty of 15 month imprisonment. In Japan, the sale of the English-language edition was banned under the threat of fines. The government of Bulgaria and Poland also restricted its distribution.

1991
Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator, was stabbed to death. Ettore Capriolo, the Italian translator, was seriously wounded.

1993
William Nygaard, its Norwegian publisher, was shot and seriously injured.

A Separate Peace
John Knowles
PS3561.N68 S4 1961 SSH Stacks

1980
Challenged in Vernon-Verona-Sherill, New York School District as a “filthy, trashy sex novel.”

1985
Challenged at the Fannett-Metal High School in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania because of its allegedly offensive language.

1989
Challenged as appropriate for high school reading lists in the Shelby County, Tennessee school system because the novel contained “offensive language.”

1996
Challenged at the McDowell County, North Carolina schools because of “graphic language.”

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut
PS3572.O5 S6355 2001 SSH Stacks

1996
Retained on the Round Rock, Texas Independent High School reading list after a challenge that the book was too violent.

1998
Challenged as an eleventh-grade summer reading option in Prince William County, Virginia because the book “was rife with profanity and explicit sex.”

2000
Removed as required reading for sophomores at Coventry, Rhode Island High School after a parent complained that it contained vulgar language, violent imagery and sexual content.

Sophie’s Choice
William Styron
PS3569.T9 S67 SSH Stacks

1979
Banned in South Africa.

2002
Returned to the La Mirada, California High School library after a complaint about its sexual content prompted the school to pull the award-winning novel about a tormented Holocaust survivor.

Tar Beach
Faith Ringgold
N6537.R55 T37 1991 AAL Stacks

1994
Challenged in the Spokane, Washington, elementary school libraries because it stereotypes African-Americans as eating fried chicken and watermelon and drinking beer at a family picnic. The book is based on memories of the author's family rooftop picnics in 1930s Harlem. The book won the 1992 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for its portrayal of minorities.

The Tin Drum
Günter Grass
PT2613.R338 B552 1962 SSH Stacks

The Tin Drum "was almost banned as child pornography in 1997-98. Based on the novel by Nobel laureate Gunther Grass, this 1979 award-winning film came under scrutiny and objection by the organization Oklahomans for Children and Families (OCAF) in 1997. In short order there was a preliminary verbal court ruling that parts of the movie qualified as obscenity under Oklahoma Statutes. Copies of the film were confiscated from Oklahoma County's Metropolitan Library System as well as from local video stores. One copy, in fact, was retrieved by police from the home and hands of a development director for the American Civil Liberties Union. Several lawsuits ensued. Luckily for free expression, a U.S. District Court decision in late 1998 affirmed that The Tin Drum was indeed not obscene and a vehicle for child pornography."

Excerpt taken from James Madison University's Banned Books Week 02 website: http://www.lib.jmu.edu/media/bannedbooksweek02.htm

Join us on September 29 for a screening of the 1979 film, The Tin Drum at 6:00pm in Geisel Library's Seuss Room.

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
PS3523.E344 T6 1960 SSH Stacks

2001
Returned to the freshman reading list at Muskogee, Oklahoma High School despite complaints over the years from black students and parents about racial slurs in the text.

2003
Challenged in the Normal, Illinois Community High Schools sophomore literature class as being degrading to African Americans.

2004
Challenged at the Stanford Middle School in Durham, North Carolina because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the word “nigger.”

Witch of Blackbird Pond
Elizabeth George Speare
PZ7.S7376 W5 SSH Stacks

2002
Challenged in the middle school curriculum in Cromwell, Connecticut based on concern that it promotes witchcraft and violence. The book is the recipient of the 1959 Newbery Medal for children’s literature.

A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L’Engle
PZ7.L5385 Wr2 SSH Stacks

1990
Challenged in the Anniston, Alabama schools because the book sends a mixed signal to children about good and evil. The complainant also objected to listing the name of Jesus Christ together with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists and religious leaders when referring to defenders of Earth against evil.

1996
Challenged, but retained, by the Catawba County School Board in Newton, North Carolina. A parent requested the book be pulled from the school libraries because it allegedly undermines religious beliefs.