The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving
A miserly couple has a run in with a man in the woods with an ax and it goes about like you would expect.
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The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
We follow the ups and downs and rapes of a Chilean family for several mystical generations.
Banned
#97 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
1994 - California - Challenged due to accounts of sexual encounters and violence but retained at Paso Robles High School
1997 - Virginia - Challenged but retained at Brentsville's Stonewall Jackson High School for sexual explicitness
1998 - Maryland - Challenged at Montgomery County reading lists and school library shelves as obscene
1999 - California - Challenged in Encinitas at La Costa Canyon High School as it "defames" the Catholic faith and contains "pornographic passages"
2000 - California
Challenged but retained at Fairfield Unified School District as "immoral and sexually depraved"
Challenged and retained for being "immoral and sexually depraved" at Suisun City Unified School District
2003 - California - Challenged but retained at Modesto, with the Modesto City School Board advising that parents given annotations and information of any text with the option of opting out
2013 - North Carolina - Challenged due to the book's graphic nature at Watauga County High School and retained after three appeals.
Sources
ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.
Allende, Isabele. House of the Spirits. Alfred A. Knopf. 1982.
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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/
Grendel by John Gardner
We learn that a monster known to be a crazy bloodthirsty tornado of violence is really just a bit of a thinker. With claws.
Banned
#96 on Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009
1978 - Maryland - Challenged at Frederick County Schools for being "anti-christian, anti-moral, and violent."
1986
California - At Wasco High School the principal felt it was "profane," and created a restricted list of books, this being the first and only book on the list. All students had to have parental permission before they could study the book.
Indiana - Challenged in an Indianapolis accelerated English class
1991 - Utah - Challenged as obscene in Farmington's Viewmont High School
1992 - New Jersey - Challenged but retained at Bass River Township's Pineland Regional High School for obscenities
1993 - Georgia - Challenged in Clayton County Schools in Jonesboro for being violent and graphic
1997 - Colorado - Challenged but retained at Douglas County schools for being obscene and violent. The school board also declined to create a book rating system.
2008 - Oregon - Challenged but retained at Sherwood School District for torture and mutilation
Sources
ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.
Gardner, John. Grendel. Vintage Books. New York, 1971.
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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/
Shade's Children by Garth Nix
When all the adults have vanished and overlords have taken over, a bunch of super-powered kids have sex and save the planet.
Banned
#95 on Top 100 Banned/Challenged books: 2000-2009
2001 - New York - Williamsville's Transit Middle School retained after the book was challenged for being "vulgar, obscene, and educationally unsuitable."
Sources
ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.
Nix, Garth. Shade's Children. HarperCollins. New York, 1997.
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/
Black Boy by Richard Wright
A memoir of a great writer dealing with racial issues, poverty, domestic violence, and a lot of moving around and learning.
Read MoreStephen King's It
Part 1 - We start at the beginning with the murders of a little boy and a gay man while Stan, Richie, Ben, Eddie, and Beverly are called home because they promised.
Banned
1987
Nebraska - Challenged in Lincoln school libraries because of the novel's "corruptive, obscene nature."
1992
New York - Placed on a "closed shelf" a the Franklinville Central High School library for sexual content, violence, and language. Parental permission required to check out by students.
Sources
ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 17 Aug 01 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA, 2014.
King, Stephen. "It." Pocket Books. New York: 2016.
King, Stephen. "Book-Banners: Adventure in Censorship Is Stranger Than Fiction, The." StephenKing.com, 2000-2012. Retrieved on 17 Aug 22 from http://www.stephenking.com/library/essay/book-banners:_adventure_in_censorship_is_stranger_than_fiction_the.html
Schnelbach, Leah. "Stephen King: An Unlikely Lifeline In Turbulent Waters." Tor.com. Macmillian, 2017. Retrieved on 17 Aug 22 from https://www.tor.com/2013/09/26/banned-books-week-stephen-king/
World's Without End. "1987 Award Winners and Nominees." icow.com, 2017. Retrieved on 17 Aug 22 from https://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1987