Pink Flamingos (1972)
Vying to be the "filthiest people in the world," a couple dealing in child trafficking attacks a violent cannibalistic family. Fun for the whole family.
Read MoreSnow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Like sands through the hourglass, these are snows falling on cedars. This story is so full of racial drama and the sex!
Banned
#33 on Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
1997 - Washington - Challenged in Snohomish School District by parents who acknowledged literary value but complained about sexual content including intercourse and masturbation as well as language made it inappropriate for high school students.
1999 - Texas - Removed from classrooms and a library in Boerne Independent High School because of depictions of violence, sex, and racial bigotry; later returned
2001 - Washington - 150 South Kitsap parents claimed the book was pornography and the school board admitted it contained sexual content and profanity, banning the book. The town opposed the ban.
2003-4 - California - Challenged but retained in Modesto for sexual content and scenes of war.
2007 - Ontario, Canada - Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board removed the book from shelves and reading lists pending review due to an anonymous complaint via letter about sexual content and language
2007-8 - Idaho - Part of a five book challenge in Coeur d’Alene School District for sexual references
2011 - Washington - Retained in college-level classes at Richland high schools. Teachers said the book was selected for the curriculum 12 years ago because it deals with prejudice against Japanese-Americans in the Pacific Northwest during and shortly after World War II.
Sources
Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009 - ALA
Banned Books Week - Snow Falling on Cedars - Mansfield Library - Youtube
David Guterson, A Brief Biography - University of Maine at Farmington
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.
Dufferin-Peel approves 'Snow Falling on Cedars' - Brampton news
Prize-winning novel pulled from school shelves - CBCNews
Snow Falling on Cedars - The Amazing Smile
Snow Falling on Cedars - imdb.com
Snow Falling on Cedars - Marshall University Libraries
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - Wikipedia
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"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
A story told with sex and masturbation and evil wizards being shot down after stealing a baby... All told in verse. It's totally evil and cool.
Banned
2003 - California - Removed from the library shelves of the Rosedale Union School District in Bakersfield for "Ice Capades," a poem about a teenage girl's breasts reacting to cold
2004 - Texas - Challenged at the Bonnette Junior High School library in Deer park for language and masturbation.
2007 - Wisconsin - Available on to 7th and 8th graders of Spring Hill School library after a parent complained about sexual themes and wanted it removed.
Sources
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom To Read. 2014.
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
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Talking about some heavy shit and a long story about a night in a haunted house.
Banned
2002 - Fairfax, Virginia: Challenged in school libraries by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools for "profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct and torture".
2003 - Massapequa, New York: Removed as a reading assignment in an elective sociology course at the Massapequa High School because of its "offensive content".
2004 - Montgomery County, Texas: Challenged in Montgomery County Memorial Library System along with 15 other young adult books with gay positive themes by the Library Patrons of Texas.
2005
Arizona - Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction sent a letter to charter and public school principals and district superintendents asking them to make sure the book is no longer available for containing sexual references, including a scene where a girl is forced to have oral sex with a boy during a party
Merton, Wisconsin: Retained in the Arrowhead HS curriculum as optional reading. Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction sent a letter to principals and district superintendents asking them to make sure that the book was no longer available to minors or any other students.
2006 - Arlington Heights, Illinois: Retained on the Northwest Suburban HS District 214 reading list along with eight other challenged titles. A newly elected school board member raised the controversy based on excerpts from the books she'd found on the Internet. Chbosky's novel, which contains references to masturbation, homosexuality, and bestiality, got the bulk of the criticism.
2007 - Commack, New York: Challenged on the Commack High School summer reading list because the novel contains a two-page rape scene.
2008 - Portage, Indiana: Removed from Portage High School classrooms for topics such as homosexuality, drug use, and sexual behavior.
2009
Wyoming, Ohio: Challenged on high school district's suggested reading list.
Roanoke, Virginia: Restricted at the William Byrd and Hidden Valley high schools in to juniors and seniors. Freshman and sophomores will need parental permission to check out the book.
West Bend, Wisconsin: Challenged at the West Bend Community Memorial Library as being "obscene or child pornography" in a section designated "Young Adults." The Library board unanimously voted 9-0 to maintain, "without removing, relocating, labeling, or otherwise restricting access," the book in the young adult section at the West Bend Community Memorial Library. The vote was a rejection of a four-month campaign conducted by the citizen's group West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries to move fiction and nonfiction books from the young adult section to the adult section and label them as containing sexual material.
2011 - Clarkstown, New York: Challenged, but retained, at the Clarkstown North High School despite a parent's complaint about the teen coming-of-age novel, which deals graphically with teenage sex, homosexuality, and bestiality.
2012 - Grandview Heights, Ohio: Challenged as assigned reading at the Grandview Heights High School because the book deals with drugs, alcohol, sex, homosexuality, and abuse.
2013
Tampa, Florida - Challenged on a summer reading list for incoming freshmen at Wharton High School in Tampa (FL) because "it deals with sexual situations and drug use."
Glen Ellyn, Illinois: Removed from 8th-grade classrooms at Hadley Junior High School because of concerns about sexually explicit content and language. In June, the Glen Ellyn Elementary Dicstrict 41 School Board overturned the decision and returned the book to library shelves. Most board members were willing to reinstate the book after assurances from district administrators that a revised parental notification letter would be sent at the start of each school year warning parents that their children could be getting access to sometimes mature content in classroom libraries.
2015 - Wallingford, Conneticut - parent complained about the book’s depiction of homosexuality, sex, masturbation, and a “glorification of alcohol use and drugs,”
2016
Florida - Parents at Pasco Middle School complained about the book's sexual content after a long-term substitute teacher assigned it without reading; after being reviewed, the book was removed from the middle school but retained at the high schools, according to the superintendent
Iowa - The review committee, in a 10-0 decision, has voted in favor of keeping The Perks of Being a Wallflower in Dubuque school curriculums. KWWL reports that at the meeting, over 40 participants stood up and spoke about their personal connection to the book. When the parent who filed for the review, Jodi Lockwood, spoke she asked to rescind her request.
Sources
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom To Read. 2014.
American Bookseller’s Association
ALA Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
As a treasure hunt type of novel, when the action revs up, you find yourself turning the pages faster and faster to see what happens next, then going back to see what pop culture references you missed. And that is what makes half this book fun, the references. If you were a child of the 80s that grew up on movies, TV and video games as your primary child rearing devices, this book should hit every chord in your brain bringing back memories on nearly every page. If you don’t know a lot about that kind of stuff... well, the story is enjoyable, just get ready to skip a lot of sections describing in detail various video game scenarios and tricks. A solid book that leans heavily on nostalgia, but still makes you wonder what is going to happen next.
"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
It's So Amazing by Robie H Harris and Michael Emberley
A book about eggs, sperm, birth, babies, families, spawning, tearing free the burden of your own existential horror, and making yourself irrelevant through reproduction.
Banned
2002 - Texas - Residents of Montgomery County, Texas, wanted the books banned from the local public library system. Montgomery County Library Director, Jerilynn Adams Williams, fought the measure for three months before both books were finally allowed to return to the shelves. Williams won the 2003 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her efforts.
2003 - Florida - Relocated from the young adult to the adult section of the Fort Bend County Libraries in Richmond. The same title was recently moved to the restricted section of the Fort Bend School District's media centers after a resident sent an e-mail message to the superintendent expressing concern about the book's content. The Spirit of Freedom Republican Women's Club petitioned the superintendent to have it, along with It's Perfectly Normal: A Book about Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, moved because they contain "frontal nudity and discussion of homosexual relationship and abortion."
2005
Arkansas - Restricted, but later returned to general circulation shelves with some limits on student access, based on a review committee's recommendations, at the Holt Middle School parent library in Fayetteville, Ark. (2005) despite a parent's complaint that it was sexually explicit.
Wisconsin - Relocated to the reference section of the Northern Hills Elementary school media center in Onalaska, Wis. (2005) because a parent complained about its frank yet kid-friendly discussion of reproduction topics, including sexual intercourse, masturbation, abortion, and homosexuality."
#37 ALA's Most Banned Books 2000-2009
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"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Sources
ALA "Why have these books been banned?"
Banned Books Awareness: “It’s So Amazing” & “It’s Perfectly Normal”
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. 2014.
Forever... by Judy Blume
Young love finds itself in a boring story banned so many times it should have its own shelf in the library.
Banned
1982
Orlando, Florida
Park Hill Jr. High School, Missouri for promoting "the stranglehold of humanism on life in America"
Scranton, PA - challenged for language, "masturbation, birth control, and disobedience to parents"
1983
Akron, Ohio - challenged in school libraries
Howard-Suamico High School, Wisconsin - "it demoralizes marital sex."
1984
Cedar Rapids, Iowa - "pornography and explores areas God didn't intend to explore outside of marriage"
Holdrege, Nebraska - challenged and moved to the adult section at the public library for being "pornographic and does not promote the sanctity of life, family life."
1986
Patrick County, Virginia - placed on restricted shelf
Campbell County, Wyoming - challenged in school libraries as pornography and that it would encourage children "to experiment with sexual encounters."
1987
Moreno Valley, California - challenged at school libraries for profanity, sex, and thems that encourage disrespectful behavior
Eliot, Minnesota - challenged at a classroom library for not casting "a responsible role of parents," that the teens of today are not as sex-minded as the characters, and being pornography, creating a bad role model.
1988 - West Hernando Middle School, Florida - school principal recommended it be removed from school library as inappropriate
1992 - Herrin Junior High School, Illinois - placed on reserve to be checked out with parental permission for being "sexually provocative reading."
1993
Schaumburg, Illinois - removed from Frost Junior High School library because "it's basically a sexual 'how-to-do' book for junior high students. It glamorizes [sex] and puts ideas in their heads."
Rib Lake, Wisconsin - Superintendent found the book "sexually explicit" and filed a "request for reconsideration." The book was confiscated by the principal after being placed on the "parental permission shelf." A guidance councilor spoke out against the principal's actions, his contract was not renewed in retaliation, and a federal jury awarded him $394,560.
1994 - Mediapolis School District, Wisconsin - Removed from school libraries for not promoting abstinence or monogamy, and "lacks any aesthetic, literary, or social value." Returned a month later accessible to high school students.
1995
Gainesville, Florida - removed after a science teacher objected to the sexual content and reference to marijuana
Muncie, Indiana - moved to restricted section of high school library requiring written parental permission.
1996 - Wilton School District, Iowa - challenged for sexual content
1997 - Elgin School District U46, Illinois - banned from middle school libraries for sex. Decision upheld in 1999 and returned to shelves in 2002.
2006 - Fayetteville, Arkansas - Challenged in the Fayetteville Middle and Junior High School libraries along with more than 50 other titles as being too sexually explicit and promoting homosexuality.
Sources
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Book: Challenging Our Freedom to Read.
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"Dances and Dames"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
