Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

in
Speak
By Laurie Halse Anderson

High school is crazy, right? Like that one time you called the cops because of a super tramatic event but all your friends thought you were being a killjoy. Memories.

Banned

#60 on ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

2010 - Missouri - Parents of Republic School District were cautioned by assistant professor of management at Missouri State University that the book was "soft-pornography" and "glorifies drinking, cursing, and premarital sex," as well as teaching principles contrary to the Bible.

Sources

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on Feburary 24, 2018 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1999.

Doll, Jen. "The Voice of 'Speak' Is Loud as Ever." The Atlantic, 2012. Retrieved Feburary 24, 2018 from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/10/voice-speak-loud-ever/322345/

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

Jensen, Kelly. "15 YEARS OF SPEAK: AN INTERVIEW WITH LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON." Book Riot, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2018 from https://bookriot.com/2014/04/08/15-years-speak-interview-laurie-halse-anderson/

Staino, Rocco. "Anderson’s Speak Under Attack, Again." School Library Journal, 2010. Retrieved on February 24, 2018 from https://www.slj.com/2010/10/industry-news/andersons-speak-under-attack-again/

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"Dances and Dames." Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

in

A banned book unstuck in time and how the library kept its forest despite mutant dogs. #godwearspants or #godalmightypees

Banned

1972 - Michigan - Rochester banned for containing and making reference to "religious matters"

1973 - North Dakota - Challenged at many communities, but burned in Drake

1975 - New York - Banned in Levittown

1979 - Ohio - Banned in North Jackson

1982 - Florida - Banned in Lakeland for "explicit sexual scenes, violence, and obscene language."

1984 - Wisconsin - Barred for purchase in Rancine by an administrative assistant for instructional services

1985 - Kentucky - Challenged in Owensboro for language a secont with an image depicting beastiality, a reference to Magic Fingers on a bed, and the line "The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the fly of God Almighty."

1986 - Wisconsin - Restricted in Racine to parental permission at the flour Racine Unified District high schools for "language, depictions of torture, ethnic slurs, and negative portrayals of women."

1987

Georgia - challenged in Fitzgerald for profanity and sexual reference

Kentucky - challenged in LaRue County for language and "deviant sexual behavior"

1988 - Louisiana - challenged in a Baton Rouge high school library as "vulgar and offensive"

1989 - Michigan - challenged in Monroe high schools for language and portrayal of women

1996 - Texas - challenged in Round Rock high school for being too violent

1998 - Virginia - banned in Prince William County high schools for profanity and sex

2000 - Rhode Island - Removed from Coventry high school reading list after a parent complained of language, violence and sex

2006 - Illinois - A school board member in Arlington Heights, elected on a platform to bring Christian values to board decision making, raised a controversy about several books based on excerpts of the books she found on the Internet

2007 - Michigan - Challenged in Livingston County at Howell High School for strong sexual content by the organization Livingston Organization for Values in Education (LOVE). LOVE asked law enforcement to review the book for distributing sexually explicit conduct to minors. The county prosecutor said the book was not criminally liable, containing content of an artistic, literary, or political nature.

2010 - Missouri - Removed and later returned from Republic high schools, available only to parents. Teachers cannot acquire or read aloud from it. A resident said it taught principles contrary to the Bible.

Source

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.

"Dances and Dames" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Agony of Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

in
The Agony of Alice
By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Growing up is tough and Alice is agonizing about finding a new mom and pretty much being a weirdo normal kid.

Banned

2000 - Fairfax County, Virginia - was challenged but retained after a parent complained. The book is available only for "small discussion groups for girls only."

2001 - Alice series #7 on ALA Top 10 List for sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

2002

Webb City, Missouri - school library banned several Alice books for their “promotion of homosexuality” and discussion of issues “best left to parents.”

Alice series #2 on ALA Top 10 List for homosexuality, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

2003 - Alice series #1 on ALA Top 10 List for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuitable for age group

2006 - Alice series #3 on ALA Top 10 List for offensive language and sexually explicit

2011 - Series #6 on ALA Top 10 List for nudity, offensive language, and religious viewpoints

Series is #14 on 100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999

Series is #2 on Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

in ,
To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee

A novel told from the point of a young girl that deals with racism, sexism, classicism, and violence in the deep south. Join our narrator as he gets into the issues of his homeland and also shares stories about rolling in tires and old pianos in gymnasiums.

Banned

deals with racial injustice, class systems, gender roles, loss of innocence, language, violence, rape, incest and authority

1966 - Virginia - Hanover for immoral use of rape as a plot device

1968 - #2 National Education Association list receiving the most complaints from private organizations

1977 - Minnesota - Eden Valley School Committee for being too laden with profanity, temporary ban

1980 - New York - Vernon-Verona-Sherill School District where "Reverend Carl Hadley threatened to establish a private Christian school because public school libraries contained such "filthy, trashy sex novels" as A Separate Peace and To Kill a Mockingbird"

1981 - Indiana - Warren where "three black parents resigned from the township Human Relations Advisory Council when the Warren County school administration refused to remove the book from Warren junior high school classes. They contended that the book "does psychological damage to the positive integration process and represents institutionalized racism""

1984 - Illinois - Waukegan School District over racial slurs.

1985

Missouri - Kansas City and Park Hill Junior High School for profanity and racial slurs

Arizona - Casa Grande School District "by black parents and the NAACP who charged the book was unfit for junior high use."

1990s - New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada for racial language, “The terminology in this novel subjects students to humiliating experiences that rob them of their self-respect and the respect of their peers. The word ‘nigger’ is used 48 times [in] the novel… We believe that the English Language Arts curriculum in Nova Scotia must enable all students to feel comfortable with ideas, feelings and experiences presented without fear of humiliation… To Kill a Mockingbird is clearly a book that no longer meets these goals and therefore must no longer be used for classroom instruction.”

1995

California - Santa Cruz Schools for racial themes

Louisiana - Caddo Parish's Southwood High School Library for language and objectionable content

1996

Mississippi - Moss Point School District over racial epithet.

Texas - Lindale advanced placement English reading list for “conflicted with the values of the community.”

2000-2009 - #21 on ALA's most frequently challenged books

2001

Georgia - Glynn County School Board for profanity

Oklahoma - removed from Muskogee High School for racial slurs after years of complaints from black students and parents, but returned

2004

Illinois - Normal Community High School as "being degrading to African Americans."

North Carolina - Durham for racial slurs.

2006 - Tennessee - Brentwood Middle School for profanity, sex, rape and incest as well as racial slurs promoting "racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy"

2007 - New Jersey - Cherry Hill Board of Education for objections "to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression and feared the book would upset black children reading it."

2009 - Canada, Ontario - St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Brampton due to language and racial slurs

2016 - Virginia - The superintendent of Accomack County Public Schools confirmed the district had removed Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” after a parent voiced her concerns during a Nov. 15 school board meeting, reported WAVY-TV.

2017 - Mississippi - Removed from the 8th grade course work in Biloxi schools due to "some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable

2018 - Minnesota - Duluth Public Schools removed the book from the curriculum for use of the "n" word.

Sources

Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.

Caron, Christina. "‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Removed From School in Mississippi." New York Times. Retrieved Oct 16, 2017 from

Philips, Kristine. "A school district drops ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Huckleberry Finn’ over use of the n-word." Washington Post. Retrieved on 2018 February 9 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/02/07/a-school-district-drops-to-kill-a-mockingbird-and-huckleberry-finn-over-use-of-the-n-word/?utm_term=.f2df4a0b9d2d

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"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

in

A small man is sucked out of his clothes and into a hellish wasteland where he must defeat a cult of baking Hitlers before they give rise to the abomination known as M'ilk.

Banned

1972 - Sendak's editor, Ursula Nordstrom wrote to a librarian who burned the book and commented on librarians and teacher painting over the boy's nudity

1977

Illinois - Banned in Norridge at Pennoyer Elementary after a school board member complained about "nudity without a purpose," but was reinstated in 2012. 

Missouri - Damaged in Springfield by drawing shorts on the nude boy

1985 - Wisconsin - Challenged at the Cunningham Elementary School libraries for nudity

1988 - Illinois - Challenged at the Robeson Elementary School in Champaign because of "gratuitous" nudity

1989 - New Jersey - Challenged at the Camden Elementary school libraries for nudity

1992 - Minnesota - Challenged at the Elk River schools because reading the book "could lay the foundation for future use of pornography"

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

2006 - North Carolina - Challenged in the Wake County schools. Parents are getting help from Called2Action, a Christian group that says its mission is to "promote and defend our shared family values."

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell 20

in
And Tango Makes Three (Classic Board Books)
By Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell

Title: And Tango Makes Three

Author: Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, Henry Cole (Illustrator)

Publisher and Publication Year: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2005

Summary

In a world where penguins are locked up in cages called zoos, two male chinstraps dare to find… whatever it is you call companionship in penguins. Love? Sure. Hot, sweaty penguin love. Then a guy gives them an egg because fuck it, let's see what happens. The thrilling conclusion comes when the egg hatches and the two become daddies. Join us as we talk about And Tango Makes Three.

Banned

General:

  • Some parents and other adults who should stop trying to raise other peoples kids have objected to children reading a book about homosexuality, misreading the whole point of the book entirely.

  • The idea about comparing penguin love to human love has been found ludicrous by some, which is a pretty good argument because penguins don't have higher brain functions. That being said, "senior penguin keeper Rob Gramzay said that he never saw the pair complete a sex act, but the two did engage in mating rituals like entwining their necks and vocalizing to one another." Co-author Justin Richardson also said “We wrote the book to help parents teach children about same-sex parent families. It's no more an argument in favor of human gay relationships than it is a call for children to swallow their fish whole or sleep on rocks." That being said, the book is also not a call against homosexuality in any way, simply enforcing that families come in all shapes and sizes. Think about that when you read, that humans can learn a lot about forming families.

Specific Cases:

2006

Illinois - Shilo - Parents at Shiloh Elementary School requested the book be allowed checked out with parental permission, but the superintendent vetoed the matter.

Missouri - Moved from children's fiction to nonfiction in Savannah and St. Joseph after parents complained it had homosexual overtones. 

Missouri - Rolling Hills - book moved to nonfiction section by Library Director Barbara Read after parent complains of gay themes.

North Carolina - Charlotte - Superintendent Peter Gorman of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools ordered the book be removed from school libraries. A committee reviewed the decision claiming policy on challenged books were not followed.

2008

California - Lodi Public Library - resident challenged, claiming its "homosexual story line that has been sugarcoated with cute penguins

California - Chico - Three parents complained the book was unsuitable for young children. A school committee voted to retain.

Iowa - Ankeny - parents at local elementary school asked it be restricted for parental check out. School board voted 6 to 1 to keep the book in circulation.

Maryland - Calvert County - Parent requested the book be placed in a section for "alternative or non-traditional families". Another parent also claimed the book should be labeled or removed as being too young for sexuality and that when the penguins "slept together," it was referencing sex. The library board voted to retain the book both times.

Ohio - Dublin - Eli Pinny Elementary retained the book after a parent's concern that the book "is based on one of those subjects that is best discovered by students in another time or in another place."

UK - Withdrawn from two Bristol primary schools following objections from parents.

Virginia - Sterling, Loudoun County - Superintendent Dr. Edgar B Hatrick, after parents complaint, removed book from all school libraries despite staff complaints. The book was returned after Hatrick found "significant procedural errors that he believes void the process followed in this matter."

2009

Minnesota - retained in the Meadowview Elementry School in Farmington despite a paren't concern that "a topic such as seual preference does not belong in a library where it can be obtained by young elementary students."

Missouri - North Kansas City - Challenged but retained after parent's complaints about inappropriate "human sexuality education" and "tries to indoctrinate children about homosexuality."

2011 - Minnesota - Rochester - Pulled and removed from Gibbs Elementary School library but later put back after district policy had not been followed. The parent who challenged the book was required to be present when any item was checked out.

2013 - Utah - Marked for removal in the Davis School District because parents might find it objectionable.

2014 - Singapore - National Library Board (NLB) announced it would destroy three children's books with pro-LGBT families themes as they saw the titles as being "against its 'pro-family' stance following complaints by a parent and its own internal review." The decision was eventually reversed pending review.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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