Banned Books
The battle against those who would remove materials from libraries, schools, and bookstores, and now--the Internet--continues, and in many areas has escalated. Through the participation of thousands of bookstores and libraries across the country, millions of Americans learn about the critical importance of free expression and of the perilous threats to First Amendment rights that exist in our country today.
Here are some examples of books that have been challenged or banned, based on reports in the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom and other sources.
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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Catcher in the Rye
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The Chocolate War
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Bridge to Terabithia
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Forever
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It's Perfectly Normal
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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A Day No Pigs Would Die
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Goosebumps Series
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My Brother Sam is Dead
Books have been banned for reasons such as: being too "pornographic", because it preaches "bitterness and hatred against whites", because of vulgarity, occultism, violence, and sexual content. Bridge to Terabithia was banned because it "created an elaborate fantasy work they felt might lead to confusion about reality." Hmmmmm.........
Here are some useful sites for more information:
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The Banned Book Page--this site gives you a sample of writing from the banned books and you can click on them to find out why they were banned.
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Banned Books On-Line--gives books that were supressed or censored by legal authorities
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Challenged Books--Answers to questions--why are books challenged, who challenges them, and the most frequently challenged books of 2000.
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Top 100--The 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-1999