The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
High school cults, library wars, evil teachers, and chocolate. Oh yeah, we had fun with this one.
Banned
1981 - Michigan - Challenged and temporarily removed from the English curriculum in two Lapeer high schools because of "offensive language and explicit descriptions of sexual situations in the book."
1982 - Maryland - Removed from Liberty High School in Westminster for language, violence, and degradation of schools and teachers
1983 - Rhode Island - Challenged at the Richmond High School as being deemed "pornographic" and "repulsive"
1984
Arizona - Removed from Lake Havasu High School freshman reading list. The school board said the teachers were not setting good examples, fostering disrespect in the classroom and failing to support the board.
South Carolina - Banned from the Richland Two School District middle school libraries in Columbia due to language but later reinstated for eighth graders.
1985
New York - Challenged at Cornwall High School as "Humanistic and destructive of religious and moral beliefs and of national spirit"
Pennsylvania - Banned from the Stroudsburg High School library for being "blatantly graphic, pornographic, and wholly unacceptable for a high school library"
1986
Florida - Removed from Panama City school classrooms for language
Massachusetts - Challenged at Barnstable High School in Hyannis for profanity, masterbation and sexual fantasies, and "ultimately for its pessimistic ending." The novel fostered negative impressions of authority, schools, and religious schools.
1987 - California - Challenged at Moreno Valley Unified School District libraries for profanity, sex, and themes that encourage disrespectful behavior.
1988 - Florida - West Hernando Middle School principal recommended all Cormier's books removed.
1990
Connecticut - Challenged as suitable curriculum material in Harwinton and Burlington schools for profanity and setting bad examples and giving negative views of life
New Hampshire - Suspended from classroom use at Woodsville High School in Haverhill for language, masturbation, sexual fantasies, and derogatory characterizations of a teacher and religious communities
1992 - Connecticut - Challenged at New Milford for language, sex, violence, subjectivity, and negativism
1993 - Arizona - Challenged at Kyrene elementary for masturbation
1994
Georgia - Returned to the Hephzibah High School in Augusta after lack of educational content and a parent said "If they ever send a book like that home with one of my daughters again I will personally burn it and throw the ashes on the principal's desk."
New York - Challenged at Hudson Falls schools for rape, masturbation, violence, and degrading treatment of women
1995
Massachusetts - Challenged at Nauset Regional Middle School in Orleans for profanity and sexually explicit language
Pennsylvania - Challenged at Stroudsburg school sytstem that the book will "foster disobedience."
1996
California - Removed in Riverside Unified School District as inappropriate for seventh and eighth grade to read without sclass discussion for mature themes, sexual situations, and smoking
Pennsylvania - Removed from East Stroudsburg after complaints for language and content
1998
Oklahoma - Banned from Broken Arrow schools as the "antithesis of the district's character development curriculum."
Texas - Removed from Greenville Intermediate School library for "blasphemy, profanity, and graphic sexual passages"
1999 - New York - Challenged on required reading list at Colton schools for masturbation, profanity, disrespect of women, and sexual innuendo
2000
Colorado - Challenged at Silverheels Middle School's supplemental reading material in South Park after parents objected to sexually suggestive language
Massachusetts - Challenged on the eighth grade reading list at Lancaster School District for language and content
Ohio - Challenged at Maple Heights School for teaching immorality
Pennsylvania - REtained as optional reading at Rice Avenue Middle School in Girard after a grandmother found the book offensive and didn't want her grandchild reading it.
Virginia - Challenged in York County due to sexually explicit language
2001
Florida - Challenged but retained at the Dunedin Highland Middle School in St. Petersburg after objections of profanity, masturbation, sexual fantasy, and segments of the book that were considered denigrating to girls
Ohio - Challenged at a Beaver Local Board of Education in Lisbon as "pornographic"
2002 - Virginia - Challenged along with seventeen other tiles in Fairfax County elementary and secondary libraries by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools after the group contended the book had profanity, drug abuse, sexually explicit content, and torture.
2006
Connecticut - Challenged and retained at King Philip Middle School in West Hartford parents thought it was unsuitable, had language, sexual content, and violence
North Carolina - Challenged for "vulgar and sexually explicit language" by Wake County parents who received support of the ban from Called2Action, a Christian group that says its mission is to “promote and defend our shared family and social values.”
2007
Indiana - Challenged at Coeur d'Alene School District after parents say the book should require parental permission.
Illinois - Challenged at required reading at John H Kinzie Elementary School in Chicago
Maryland - Removed from Harford County High School because it's message of bullying is overshadowed by vulgar language including homophobic slurs. In Nov. 2007, the superintendent reversed the decision.
Ohio - Challenged at Northridge School in Johnstown because "if these books were a movie, they would be rated R. Why should we be encouraging them to read these books?"
Oregon - Lake Oswego junior high school because the novel is “peppered with profanities, ranging from derogatory slang terms to sexual encounters, and violence.”
Sources
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging our Freedom to Read. 2014.
Banned Books Awareness, AVClub, Marshall University Libraries, Time.
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"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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