The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

in ,
The Handmaid's Tale
By Margaret Atwood

We learn about the Handmaid and her/his tale about the alien artifact that brings water back to the world.

Banned

1990 - California - Challenged as assignment at Rancho Cotati High School in Rohnert Park as "too explicit for students"

1992 - Iowa - Challenged yet retained in Waterloo schools for profanity, sexually explicit material, and "statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled"

1993 - Massachusetts - Removed from Chicopee High School English class reading list for sex and profanity

1998 - Washington - Challenged with six other titles in Richland high school English classes for being "poor-quality literature and stress suicide, illicit sex, violence, and hopelessness."

1999 - Florida - Challenged but retained on advanced placement reading list in Chamberlain High School in Tampa

2000 - Pennsylvania - Upper Moreland School District downgraded the book from "required" to "optional" on the summer reading list for eleventh graders due to "age-inappropriate" subject matter.

2001 - Texas - Challenged but retained in the Dripping Springs senior Advanced Placement English courses as an optional assignment. Sexual encounters in the book upset some parents.

2006 - Texas - A parent complained to Superintendent Ed Lyman of the Judson school district that the book was "sexually explicit and offensive to Christians" and asked it be removed from an Advanced Placement English curriculum. A committee of teachers, students, and parents recommended the book be retained. The superintendent banned the book against the committee's recommendations. The committee appealed to the school board, which overruled the superintendent and retained the book.

2012 - North Carolina - Parents complained the book was "detrimental to Christian values" and the book was banned for "sexually explicit, violently graphic and morally corrupt" and challenged as required reading for Page High School International Baccaluraeate and optional reading in Advance Placement courses at Grimsley High School.

Sources

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

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

in
Invisible Man
By Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison's groundbreaking story about a boy becoming a man is discussed in part and we go into characters in fiction that have no name.

Banned

1975

Pennsylvania - Excerpts banned in Butler

Wisconsin - Removed from high school reading list in St. Francis

1994 - Washington - Retained the Yakima schools after two parents raised concerns about language, violence, and sex.

2013 - North Carolina - Challenged but retained at Randolph County high school libraries for language.

Sources

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/

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

in
Lord of the Flies
By William Golding

Our humanity is building the hope that we are better than we are.

Banned

1974 - Texas - Challenged at the Dallas Independent School District HIgh School libraries.

1981

North Carolina - Challenged at the Owen High School for "demoralizing inasmuch as it implies that man is little more than an animal."

South Dakota - Challenged at the Sully Buttes High School.

1983 - Arizona - Challenged at the Marana High School as inappropriate.

1984 - Texas - Challenged at the Olney Independent School District for "excessive violence and bad language."

1988 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada 0 Board of Education ruled on June 23, 1988 that the novel is "racist and recommended that it be removed from all schools." Parents and members of the black community complained about a reference to "niggers" in the book and said it denigrates blacks.

1992 - Iowa - Challenged in the Waterloo schools for profanity, passages about sex, and defamatory statements about minorities, God, women, and the disabled.

2000 - New York - Challenged but retained in Bloomfield on the ninth grade English reading list.

Sources

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/

Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

in

One boy's climb from apartheid to tennis champion. 

Banned

1993

California - Challenged at Amador High School in Sutter Creek

New Jersey - Challenged at Manasquan schools for a brief yet graphic homosexual passage

1996

Connecticut - Challenged at Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlington for brutal and graphic language

North Carolina - Temporarily pulled from Greensboro high school libraries after a resident sent letters to the school board and administrators, claiming the book could encourage sexual assault among children

1997 - California - Challenged but retained on a reading list for high school sophomores at Lincoln Unified School District in Stockton after parents referred to it as "pornographic and racially insensitive"

1999 - Ohio - Removed from Federal Hocking High School English in Athens for sexually graphic passage

2000

California - Removed from a sophomore reading list at Armijo High School in Fairfield for sexual content

Michigan - Kearsley school officials deleted six sentences describing a homosexual molestation scene in the book after parents found it offensive

2006 - California - Challenged but retained at East Union High School in Manteca after challenged for use of words such as "penis" and "anus" during a scene where young boys prostitute themselves for food

2007 - California - Banned from Burlingame Intermediate School

2010 - California - Challenged but retained in San Luis Obispo High School.

#39 on the ALA Top Banned Books 2000-2009

Sources

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

Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or RSS Feed

Help support the podcast on Patreon

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

in
The Color Purple
By Alice Walker

We talk about the origin of the library's ebooks and an important book everyone should read.

Banned

1984 - California - Challenged and retained in Oakland High School honors class for "sexual and social explicitness" and its "troubling ideas about race relations, man's relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality"

1985 - California - Rejected for purchase from Hayward school trustees due to language and sexual content

1986 - Virginia - Removed from Newport News school library for language and sexual content and placed in special section available only to those over eighteen or with parental permission

1989

Michigan - Challenged at the Saginaw public libraries for sexual content

Tennessee - Challenged as a summer youth program reading assignment in Chattanooga for language and "explicitness"

1990 - Wyoming - Challenged in Ten Sleep schools for optional reading

1992 - North Carolina - Challenged at New Bern High School as a reading assignment because of rape

1995

Connecticut - Challenged at Pomperaug High School in Southbury for sexual content

Florida - Challenged at St. Johns County Schools in St. Augustine

Oregon - Challenged and retained in the Junction City high school due to language, sexual content, and "negative image of black men."

1996

North Carolina - Challenged and retained at Northwest High School in High Point for sexual content and violence

Texas - Challenged and retained at Round Rock Independent High School for violence

1997 - West Virginia - Removed from Jackson County School libraries

1999

Ohio - Challenged and retained at Shawnee School in Lima after parents called it vulgar and "X-rated"

Virginia - Removed from Ferguson High School library in Newport News, yet may be requested and borrowed with parental approval

2002 - Virginia - Challenged at Fairfax County elementary and secondary libraries along with seventeen other books by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools for language, drug abuse, sexual content, and torture

2008 - North Carolina - Challenged in Burke County schools in Morgantown for homosexuality, rape, and incest

2013 - North Carolina - Challenged but retained at Brunswick County Advanced Placement English eleventh grade assignment for language, sexual content, or has literary value as age appropriate

Sources

Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century

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

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

in

Welcome to the literary deconstruction of race and beauty in this book about… holy crap that's what this book is about?! Evan might talk about the armadillos that are trying to sex each other.

Banned

#34 on the 100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999

#15 on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

1994

Alaska - Removed from a Lathrop High School classroom in Fairbanks for graphic descriptions and language.

Pennsylvania - Challenged at West Chester schools as pornographic

Banned from Morrisville Borough High School English after complaints of sexual content and language

1995

Florida - Challenged at the St Johns County Schools in St Augustine

Massachusetts - Challenged at Lynn schools for sexual content

1998 - Maryland - Challenged on Montgomery County reading lists and school library shelves

1999 - New Hampshire - Removed from reading list for nnth and tenth grade at Stevens High School in Claremont after a parent's complaint about sexual content

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

2005 - Colorado - Banned from the Littleton curriculum and library shelves after complaints about its explicit sex, including the rape of an eleven-year-old girl by her father.

2007 - Michigan - Challenged in the Howell High School because of the book's strong sexual content. In response from the president of the Livingston Organization for Values in Education (LOVE), the county's top law enforcement official reviewed the book to see whether laws against distribution of sexually explicit materials to minors had been broken. The county prosecutor wrote, "Whether these materials are appropriate for minors is a decision to be made by the school board, but I find that they are not in violation of the criminal laws."

2009 - Indiana - Retained in the Delphi Community High School's curriculum despite claims of inappropriate sexual content and graphic language.

2011 - Connecticut - Challenged in the Brookfield High School curriculum because of sex scenes, profanity, and age-appropriateness of the book. Students in the high school have been reading Morrison's book since 1995.

2013

Alabama - In August, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw (R-Madison) also called for his state to bar students from reading the book, taking issue with the work’s language and content.

Colorado - Challenged in Legacy High School's Advanced Placement English classes in Adams County because it was a "bad book." A notice was sent home to let parents know what they would be reading and why and an alternate assignment was offered to those who wanted it. Half a dozen students of about 150 opted to read one of the alternative texts and received instruction on those works outside of class time.

Ohio - Challenged on a suggested reading list for Columbus high school students by the school board president because it is inappropriate for the school board to "even be associated with it." A fellow board member described the book as having "an underlying socialist-communist agenda."

2014

North Carolina - East Wake High in Wake County removed the book from readings lists along with The Color Purple after a parent complained. The books are retained in the school library.

2015 - Oklahoma - Challenged, but retained in the Durant high school library despite a parent's concerns over sexual and violent content.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

in ,

One of the most banned books of all time going back over a 130 years, let's learn about a little boy's life after faking his own murder and meeting up with a slave.

Banned

1885 - Massachusetts - Banned in Concord as "trash and suitable only for the slums."

1905 - New York - Excluded from the Brooklyn Public Library's children's colleciton because "Huck not only itched but scratched, and that he said sweat when he should have said perspiration."

1930 - Confiscated at the USSR border

1957 - New York - Dropped from New York City list of books recommended for senior and junior high schools partly for use of racial language

1969 - Florida - Removed from Miami-Dade Junior College required reading because it "creates an emotional block for black students that inhibits learning."

1976 - Illinois - Challenged for racism at the New Trier High School at Winnetka

1981 - Pennsylvania - Challenged for racism at the Tamament Junior High in Warrington

1982

Iowa - Challenged for racism in Davenport Public Schools

Texas - Challenged for racism at the Sprint Independent School District in Houston

Virginia - Challenged for racism at the Mark Twain Intermediate School in Fairfax County

1983 - Pennsylvania - Challenged for racism in State College Area School District

1984 - Illinois - Challenged for racism in Springfield

1988

Illinois - Removed from required reading in teh Rockford public schools for racial language

Louisiana - REmoved from required reading and school libraries in Caddo Parish for racism

Michigan - Challenged at the Berrien Springs High School

1989 - Tennessee - Challenged at the Sevier Country High School in Sevierville for racial language and dialect

1990

Pennsylvania - Challenged at Erie High School for racism

Texas - Challenged in Plano Independent School District for racism

1991

Arizona - Challenged in the Mesa Unified School District because of racial language and damages self-esteem of black youth

Louisiana - Removed from required reading at Terrebonne Parish Schools in Houma for racial language

Michigan - Temporarily pulled from Portage classrooms after some black parents complained their children were uncomfortable

1992

California - Challenged at Modesto High as required language for racist language

North Carolina - Challenged at the Kinston Middle School as unsuitable for age group due to racist language

1993 - Pennsylvania - Challenged at Carlisle schools for racial language

1994

Georgia - Challenged at Taylor County High School in Butler for racial language, bad grammar, and does not reject slavery. Raised a grade level.

Texas - Challenged but retained on high school level by the Lewisville school board

1995

California - Removed from required reading lists in East San Jose high school after objections from black parents over racial language that erodes their children's self esteem and affects the children's performance

Connecticut - Removed from eighth grade curriculum at New Haven middle school complained it undermined the self-esteem of black youth.

Washington, D.C. - Removed from curriculum of the North Cathedral School for content and language

Wisconsin - Challenged in Kenosha Unified School after a complaint was filed with the local NAACP of offensive to black students

1996

Arizona - Challenged as required reading in an honors English class at the McClintock High School in Tempe by a teacher on behalf of their daughter and other black students. In May 1996, a class action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, alleging the district deprived minority students of educational opportunities by requiring racially offensive literature as part of class assignments. In January 1997, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit stating he realized that "language in the novel was offensive and hurtful to the plaintiff," but that the suit failed to prove the district violated the student's civil rights or that the works were assigned with discriminatory intent. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco ruled that requiring public school students to read literary works that some find racially offensive is not discrimination prohibited by the equal protection clause or Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The ruling came in the case Monteiro v. Tempe Union High School District

Pennsylvania - removed from required reading list at the Upper Dublin schools because of its racial language

Texas - Banned from the Lindale Advanced Placement English reading list for "conflicting with the values of the community."

Washington - Challenged for being on the approved reading list in the Federal Way schools because it "promotes hate and racism"

1997

Indiana - Challenged at the Columbus North High School because the books is "degrading, insensitive, and oppressive"

New Jersey - Removed from Cherry Hill school classrooms after concerns were raised about racial language and depiction of African American characters. Reinstated later that year after the school board approved a new curriculum with a context of racial relations along with the works of Frederick Douglass, Maya Angelou, and Langston Hughes

Ohio - Challenged in South Euclid-Lyndhurst City Schools after a school complained that some classmates laughed at the racial language

Virginia - Challenged but retained at McLean High School in Fairfax despite a parent's complaint that the book offends African Americans

1998

Georgia - Challenged in the Dalton County schools for offensive language; Challenged in the Whitfield County for offensive language

Pennsylvania - The Pennsylvania NAACP called for the book's removal from required school reading lists across the state for racial language

1999 - Alaska - Recommended for removal because of racial language from the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District

2000 - Oklahoma - Challenged but retained at Enid schools after previously being removed in 1977

2001 - Illinois - Challenged in the Kankakee School District for racial language

2002 - Oregon - Challenged in the Portland schools by a black student who said he was offended by the racial language

2003 - Illinois - Challenged in teh Normal Community High School as being degrading

2004 - Washington - REmoved from reading lists in Renton high schools after a black student said the book degraded her and her culture. The novel was not required reading but was on approved book's list

2006 - Arizona - Challenged as required reading at Cactus High in Peoria. The student and mother threatened to file a civil-rights complaint of alleged racial treatment, segregation of the student, and the use of racial language in the classroom

2007

Michigan - Removed from Taylor school classes after complaints of racial language

Minnesota - Challenged but retained at Lakeville High School and the St. Louis Park High School in Minneapolis as required reading although staff was given training and alternate reading choices were made

Texas - Challenged at Richland High School in NOrth Richland Hills for racial language

2008 - Connecticut - Retained in Manchester School District with the requirement that teachers attend seminars about race before teaching the book

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.

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.

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

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Meyers

in ,
Fallen Angels
By Walter Dean Myers

We go into combat with this view of the Vietnam Conflict/War/Murder Forest through the eyes of a young man dealing with stuff.

Banned

#36 100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999

#11 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009

1990 - Ohio - Challenged for language at Bluffton schools

1992 - Georgia - Jackson County High School restricted the book because of language and sensitive material

1994 - Pennsylvania - Challenged at West Chester schools

1995 - Ohio - A parent complained about sexually explicit language and it was removed from Middleburg Heights

1997 - Ohio - Challenged but retained at Lakewood High School after a parent's complaint of violence and language

1999

California - Removed from Lafton Unified School District for violence and profanity

Michigan - Removed from required reading from Livonia public schools for language

2000 - Texas - Challenged but retained at Arlington school district's junior high libraries after parent's complaint as unsuitable for age group

2002 - Mississippi - Banned from George County schools for profanity

2003

Virginia - Challenged in Fairfax school libraries by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools for "profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct and torture"

Indiana - Banned at Franklin Central High School in Indianapolis for profanity

2005 - Kansas - Removed from Blue Valley School District high school curriculum in Overland Park.

2006 - Illinois - Arlington Height's Northwest Suburban High School District was removed after a school board member elected for her promises of Christian values raised the controversy based on excerpts from eight books she had read on the Internet

2007 - Indiana - Challenged at Coeur d'Alene School District after parents said the book should require parental permission

2008 - North Carolina - Challenged at Chinquapin Elementary School in Duplin County for language, racial epithets, and homophobia

2013 - Ohio - Challenged at Danbury Middle School in Toledo for language and descriptions of combat

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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