A Time To Kill by John Grisham

in
A Time to Kill: A Novel
By John Grisham

When a black man kills the men who raped his daughter, a small southern town loses its damn mind.

Banned

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

2005 - North Dakota - Challenged but retained at Fargo North High School advanced English classes despite complaints of graphic rape and murder scenes

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.

Grisham, John. A Time to Kill. Doubleday. New York, 1989.

 

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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/

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

in
Fahrenheit 451
By Ray Bradbury

It was a pleasure to burn through this book and explain that people are dummies for banning a book on book banning.

Banned

1967 - Ballantine Books released the "Bal-Hi Edition" aimed at high school students which censored such words as "hell" and "damn" and "drunk man" became a "sick man."

1987 - Florida - The book was given "third tier" status under a homegrown book classification system at Bay County Schools in Panama City meaning it contained "vulgarity." After much controversy, the school abandoned the tier system and the book was placed in the curriculum.

1992 - California - Irvine school Venado Middle School censored after students received copies with words such as "hell" and "damn". Parents complained and reporters contacted the school so officials said the censored copies would not be used

2006 - Texas - Challenged at Conroe Independent School District for "discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, 'dirty talk,' reference to the Bible, and using God's name in vain," going against "religious beliefs."

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

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Ballantine Books. New York, 1953.

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

Library of Congress. "Books That Shaped America." Retrieved on April 16, 2019 from https://www.loc.gov/bookfest/books-that-shaped-america/

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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/

God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian by Kurt Vonnegut

in ,

Vonnegut dies to bring you news from the Pearly Gates, interviewing notable dead people about their lives and thoughts on current events.

Banned

No specific instances, but some comment on Vonnegut's take on religion, death, the afterlife, and controversial topics.

Sources

Vonnegut, Kurt. God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian. Seven Stories Press. New York, 1999.

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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/

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

in

A man trying to escape prison finds himself locked up in the worst way in this psychadelic novel about conformity, individuality, and sanity.

Banned

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

1971 - Colorado - Challenged in Greenley public school district as non-required reading.

1974 - Ohio - Five residents sued the board of education to remove the book from classrooms, saying it was "pornographic" and ”glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination."

1975

New York - removed from Randolph public schools

Oklahoma - removed from Alton public schools

1977 - Maine - Removed from required reading list in Westport

1978 - Idaho - Banned from Freemont High School in St. Anthony and the instructor was terminated.

1982 - New Hampshire - challenged in Merrimack high school

1986 - Washington - challenged but retained in Aberdeen high school for use in honors English for promoting "secular humanism"

2000 - California - Parents at the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District complained about profanity and sexual situations and petitioned to have the book removed. Parent of children aged 7,8, and 17 Anna Marie Buckner said "It teaches how very easy it is to smother somebody. I don't want to put these kinds of images in children's minds. They're going to think that when they get mad at their parents, they can just ax them out."

Sources

ALA. "Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century." ALA. 2018. Retrieved on 2018 Jaunuary 26 from http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bbwlinks&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=136590

ALA. "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009." Retrieved on 18 Jan 26 from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009

Baldassarro, R. Wolf. "Banned Books Awareness: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey." world.edu. 2012. Retrieved 2018 January 26 from http://world.edu/banned-books-awareness-flew-cuckoos-nest-ken-kesey/

Biography.com. "Ken Kesey Biography.com." The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. March 23, 2016. Retrieved 2018 January 26 from https://www.biography.com/people/ken-kesey-9363911

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

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Viking. 1962; 2002.

Tran, Mai. "Parents Ask School District to Ban 'Cuckoo's Nest.'" LA Times. 2000. Retrieved 2018 January 26 from http://articles.latimes.com/2000/dec/03/local/me-60611

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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/

William Tyndale's New Testament

in ,

The library delves into the Gospel of Matthew with this biblical translation that brought Jesus to the English masses and totally got the author murdered by the state.

Banned

1526 - England - As the first English-language version of the New Testament, it was also the first print book banned in England. Translating the original Greek and Hebrew into present speech was illegal. Tyndale tried to publish it in Cologne in 1525 and succeeded in 1526 in Worms anonymously. Six thousand copies were smuggled into England and and publically burned. One copy survived in the library of Baptist College in Bristol. Reprints were continually published despite ban.

1534 - England - Church authorities attempted to extradite Tyndale from Europe. He continued publishing revisions under his own name before being arrested in 1535. He was imprisoned, strangled at the stake, and burned with copies of his translations of the Bible. Around 50,000 copies in seven additions were in circulation the time of his death.

1546 - England - The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a new ban, citing references to church functionaries as "horse-leeches, maggots, and caterpillars in a kingdom." Tyndale's works were to be burned when found.

1555 - England - Queen Mary issued a ban for false doctrines against the Catholic faith.

Sources

BBC. "William Tyndale." BBC, 2017. Retrieved 17 November 24 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_tyndale/

Christianity Today. "William Tyndale." Christianity Today, 2017. Retrieved on 17 November 23 from http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/scholarsandscientists/william-tyndale.html

Doyle, Robert P. "Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read." American Library Association, 2014.

Tyndale, William. "William Tyndale's New Testament." Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, 2002.

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

in

A small New England town is rocked by the scandal of everyday life in one of the most forgotten popular books of the twentieth century.

Banned

1957 - Tennessee - Knoxville activated a city ordinance that said the City Board of Review could block items deemed obscene. Local booksellers were forbidden to sell it. One newsstand owner challenged the ordinance and it was ruled unconsitutional.

1958

Ireland - Banned until the introduction of the Censorship of Publications Bill in 1967.

Canada - Temporary ban lifted

1959 - Rhode Island - The Rhonde Island Commission to Encourage Morality in Youth bought action against Bantam and three other New York paperback publishers. The Rhode Island Superior Court upheld the decision, which was later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bantam Boos, Inc, et al, v. Joseph A Sullivan, et al.

Sources

Callahan, Michael. "Peyton Places' Real Victim." Vanity Fair. Retrieved on 2017 Nov 1 from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/03/peytonplace200603

Doyle, Robert P. "Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read." American Library Association, 2014.

Metalious, Grace. "Peyton Place." Northeastern Univsersity Press. Boston, 1956, 1999.

Stephen King's It

in
It: A Novel
By Stephen King

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

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.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

in

Books are banned in Nazi hotels and then we sorta get into the book.

Banned

1972 - Ohio - Strongsville School board voted it out with Cat's Cradle, overturned 1976 by SSB vs Minarcini by the US District Court

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/

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

in
Cat's Cradle: A Novel
By Kurt Vonnegut

The world is ending with the water freezing over and the library is getting sued as we continue with Kurt Vonnegut month!

Banned

1972 - Ohio - Strongsville School Board voted to be withdrawn from the school libraries. Overturned in 1976 by U.S. District Court in Minarcini Vs Strongsville City School District

1982 - New Hampshire - Challenged at Merrimack High School

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/