Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (Beatrice Sparks)

in
Go Ask Alice
By Anonymous

A story of order and a nightgown with little anchors then a book about an anonymous diary full of lies about drugs and a life not worth living.

Banned

#18 on Top Challenged books 2000-2009

1974 - Michigan - Removed from school libraries in Kalamazoo due to language and sexual content.

1975

Michigan - Removed from school libraries in Saginaw due to language and sexual content

New York - Removed from school libraries in Levittown due to language and sexual content

1977

New Jersey - Removed from school libraries in Trenton due to language and sexual content

Texas -  Removed from school libraries in Eagle Pass due to language and sexual content

1979 - Utah - Challenged at the Ogden School District

1980 - New Jersey - Removed from school libraries in North Bergen due to language and sexual content

1982 - Florida - Challenged at Safety Harbor, St Petersburg Middle School Library where written parental permission was required to check out

1983

Colorado - Challenged at the Pagosa Springs schools after a parent objected to language, subject matter, "immoral tone and lack of literary quality"

Minnesota -Challenged at the Osseo School District in Brooklyn Park after a school board found the book's language "personally offensive."

1984 - Mississippi - Challenged at the Rankin County School district for language and sexual content

1986

Georgia - Challenged at the Central Gwinnett High School library for encouraging students to "steal and take drugs"

Georgia - Along with 40 other books, the Gainesville Public Library restricted this book to adults and is kept in a locked room

Michigan - Removed from the school library in Kalkaska for language

1988 - Maine - Challenged at King Middle School in Portland

1993

New Jersey - Removed from Wall Township Intermediate School library by the Superintendent of Schools for language and "borders on pornography" after responding to an anonymous letter in 1987 and removing the book.

New York - Challenged as required reading for language at Johnstown High School

West Virginia - Removed from Buckhannon-Upshur High school English class for language

1994 - Massachusetts - Banned in Dudley at Shepherd Hill High School ninth grade reading list for language, drug use, and sexual content

1995

Alaska - Challenged in Wasilla at Houston Junior and Senior High School

Ohio - Banned from Plain City's Jonathan Alder School District

Virginia - Removed from Warm Springs sophomore English class for language and "indecent situations"

1998 - Rhode Island - Principal in Tiverton middle school confiscated the book from a class while reading. The book was later returned by the school board.

1999 - Texas - Removed from Aledo Middle School library and restricted at the high school library to parental permission after a parent complained about drug use, language and sexual content

2000 - Pennsylvania - REtained as optional reading for eighth graders at Girard's Rice Avenue Middle School after a grandmother found the book offensive for "filth and smut"

2008 - South Carolina - Challenged at Berkeley County's Hanahan Middle School for language, sexual content, drug use, and blasphemy

Sources

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

'Go Ask Alice' Is Still Awash in Controversy, 43 Years After Publication

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/

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/

Daughters of Eve by Lois Duncan

in
Daughters of Eve
By Lois Duncan

A group of young girls become a frightening force for feminism as we discuss Lois Duncan, water heater's breaking, and dude's being jerks.

Banned

1997 - West Virginia - Removed along with 16 other title from Jackson County school libraries

2000 - Virginia - removed from Fairfax County middle school libraries for violence, risky behaviors, and "seeks to prejudice young vulnerable minds on several issues"

2005 - Indiana - Challenged at Lowell Middle School for profanity and sexual content

2007 - New Mexico - Superintendent of Clovis Municipal Schools removed the book from elementary schools after rumors of parent's displeasure and having a formal review which found issues with language and "suggestive material." Duncan (author) agreed the book was not for elementary schools.

Book covers many challenging topics such as sex, language, domestic violence, feminism, anti-feminism, rape, murder, violence, vigilante behavior, sexism, abortion

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

in

The tale of men of simple pleasures and simple times meeting on hard ways. Also being frozen.

Banned

1953 - Banned in Ireland

1974 - Indiana - Banned in Syracuse

1977

Pennsylvania - Banned in Oil City

South Carolina - Challenged in Greenville by the Fourth Province of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

1979 - Michigan - Challenged but retained in Grand Blanc schools after being called "vulgar and blasphemous"

1980

New York - Challenged in Vernon-Verona-Sherill School District

Ohio - Challenged in Continental

1981 - Arizona - Challenged in Saint David

1982 - Indiana - Challenged in Tell City for "profanity and using God's name in vain"

1983 - Alabama - Banned from classroom use at Scottsboro Skyline HIgh School for profanity

1984 - Tennessee - The Knoxville School Board chairman vowed to have "filthy books" removed from Knoxville's public schools and picked this book as the first target for it's profanity

1987 - Kentucky - Reinstated at the Christian County school libraries and English classes after being challenged for being vulgar and offensive

1988

Illinois - Challenged at the Wheaton-Warrenville Middle school

Michigan - Challenged at the Barrien Springs High School for profanity

West Virginia - Challenged in the Marion County schools

1989

Alabama - Removed from the Northside High School in Tuscaloosa because the book blasphemed

Arkansas - Removed from the White Chapel High School in Pine Bluff after objections from language

Tennessee

Challenged as a summer youth program reading assignment in Chattanooga because 'Steinbeck's known to have an anti-business attitude" as well as "being very questionable about his patriotism"

Challenged in Shelby County schools for offensive language

1990

Kansas - Challenged but retained in Salina tenth-grade English class for profanity and taking "the Lord's name in vain"

Texas - Challenged in the Riviera schools for profanity

1991

California - Challenged by a Fresno parent for profanity and racial slurs but retained and the child given an alternate assignment

Florida - Removed and later returned to the Suwannee High School library for being indecent

Pennsylvania - Challenged as curriculum material at the Ringgold High School in Carroll Township because the novel contained racial slurs

Tennessee - Challenged at the Jacksboro High School because the novel contains blasphemous language, excessive cursing, and sexual overtones

Virginia - Challenged as required reading in the Buckingham County schools for profanity

1992

Alabama - A coalition of community members and clergy in Mobile requested local school officials form a special textbook screening committee. This book was the first target for profanity and "morbid and depressing themes"

California - Challenged at Modesto High school for offensive and racist language

Florida - Challenged in the Duval County public school libraries for profanity, lurid passages about sex, statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled.

Iowa - Challenged at the Waterloo schools

Louisiana - Challenged at the Oak Hill High School in Alexandria for profanity

Ohio - Temporarily removed from Hamilton High School after a parent complained about its vulgarity and racial slurs

1993 - Arizona - Challenged at Mingus Union High School because of "profane language, moral statement, treatment of the retarded, and the violent ending"

1994

Georgia - Challenged at the Loganville High School for language

Tennessee - Pulled from a classroom by Putnam County superintendent for language and later reinstated

1995

Georgia - Challenged at the Stephen County Highs School library in Toccoa Falls for language

Kansas - Challenged at Galena school library for language and social implications

Minnesota - Retained at Bemidji schools after challenges to the book's questionable langauge

Virginia - Challenged but retained in Warm Springs High School

1997

Florida - Removed, restored, restricted and eventually retained at the Bay County school in Panama City. A citizen group, 100 Black United, Inc, requested the novel's removal and "any other inadmissible literary books that have racial slurs in them, such as using of the word 'n****r.'"

Illinois - Banned from Washington Junior High School in Peru for being age inappropriate.

Minnesota - Challenged but retained at the Sauk Rapids-Rice High School in St. Cloud after a parent complained of racist language lead to racist behavior and harrassment

Ohio - Challenged but retained in the Louisville high school English class for profanity

1998

Arizona - Challenged but retained in teh Bryan t school library because a parent complained the book "takes God's name in vain fifteen time and uses Jesus's name lightly."

California - Challenged in O'Hara Park Middle School in Oakley for racial epithets

Wisconsin - Challenged at the Barron School District

1999

Pennsylvania - Challenged but retained at West Middlesex High School despite objections to profanity

Wisconsin - Challenged at the Tomah School District for violence and language

2002

Michigan - Challenged in Grandville for racism, profanity and foul language

Mississippi - Banned from George County schools for profanity

2003 - Illinois - Challenged at Normal Community High School  "racial slurs, profanity, violence, and does not represent traditional values." Steinbeck's The Pearl was offered as an alternative, but the family also rejected.

2006 - Pennsylvania - Retained in the Greencastle-Antrim 10th grade English classes after a complaint was filed for "racial slurs" and profanity. 

2007

Iowa - Challenged at the Newton High School for profanity and portrayal of Jesus Christ. 

Kansas - parent challenge in Olathe calling it "worthless, profanity-riddled" and "derogatory towards African Americans, women, and the developmentally disabled."

2014

Minnesota - Challenged but retained in the Brainerd School District despite complaints from two parents who objected to "Jesus Christ" as a curse word, the use of racial slurs for African Americans, and the term "Japs." They argued the book undermined the values of respect they were trying to teach.

Sources

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

Guardian, Marshall University Library

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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/