It's So Amazing by Robie H Harris and Michael Emberley

in

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

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

in ,
Bless Me, Ultima
By Rudolfo Anaya

A boy and his magical grandmother battle evil while going to church and finding fish gods. Also, the farmer and the cowman can be friends.

Banned

1992 - California - Challenged at the Porterville high schools for "many profane and obscene references, vulgar Spanish words, and glorifies witchcraft and death"

1996 - Texas - Retained on the Round Rock Independent High School Reading list after a challenge that the book was too violent

1999 - California - Removed from the Laton Unified School District for violence and profanity that might harm students after being chosen because the student population is 80 percent Hispanic.

2000 - New York - Challenged at the John Jay High School in Wappingers Falls because the book is "full of sex and cursing"

2005 - Norwood, Colorado, Norwood High School - after the book was removed from reading lists and to be destroyed, the parents asked to burn it - The book was removed by the superintendent after two parents complained about profanity. He gave all copies of the books to the parents who "tossed them in the trash." The superintendent later apologized after students organized an all day sit-in at the school gym. 

2008 - Newman, CA, Orestimba High School - removed by the superintendent for being "profane and anti-Catholic." Teachers claimed the superintendent circumvented policy on book challenges and set a dangerous precedent. 

2013 - Driggs, ID, Teton Valley School District - Removed and reinstated after being banned by the superintendent for "profanity and alleged inappropriateness"

Part of The Big Read

Sources

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/

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

in
Where the Wild Things Are
By Maurice Sendak

A child gets sent to bed without dinner and in the throes of hunger pains experiences vivid hallucinations of wild things and voyages.

Banned

Banned for being "too dark" and for supernatural themes.

Most accounts are vague, but American Southern libraries and schools seem to be the initial place of the book being challenged.

Child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim criticized the book in the March 1969 edition of Ladies Home Journal, although in the same column admitted to not being familiar with the book.

Sources

Shafer, Jack. “Maurice Sendak’s Thin Skin.” The Slate. Original publication October 15, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2018 from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/10/where-the-wild-things-are-author-maurice-sendak-can-t-stoppositioning-himself-as-bruno-bettelheim-s-victim.html

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

in

A small man is sucked out of his clothes and into a hellish wasteland where he must defeat a cult of baking Hitlers before they give rise to the abomination known as M'ilk.

Banned

1972 - Sendak's editor, Ursula Nordstrom wrote to a librarian who burned the book and commented on librarians and teacher painting over the boy's nudity

1977

Illinois - Banned in Norridge at Pennoyer Elementary after a school board member complained about "nudity without a purpose," but was reinstated in 2012. 

Missouri - Damaged in Springfield by drawing shorts on the nude boy

1985 - Wisconsin - Challenged at the Cunningham Elementary School libraries for nudity

1988 - Illinois - Challenged at the Robeson Elementary School in Champaign because of "gratuitous" nudity

1989 - New Jersey - Challenged at the Camden Elementary school libraries for nudity

1992 - Minnesota - Challenged at the Elk River schools because reading the book "could lay the foundation for future use of pornography"

1994 - Texas - Challenged at the El Paso Public Library because "the little boy pictured did not have any clothes on and it pictured his private area"

2006 - North Carolina - Challenged in the Wake County schools. Parents are getting help from Called2Action, a Christian group that says its mission is to "promote and defend our shared family values."

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan 30

in
Killing Mr. Griffin
By Lois Duncan

A bunch of kids decide it would be funny to kidnap their teacher but everything goes horribly wrong, mostly because one of them is Bonkers McCrazynuts.

Banned

Contains violence, murder, drinking, drugs, lying to authority, peer pressure and smoking

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

1988 - California - Challenged at the Sinnott Elementary School in Milpitas for containing "needlessly foul" language and had no "redeeming qualities"

1992 - California - Removed from Bonsall Middle School eighth-grade reading list because of violence and profanity

1995 - Pennsylvania - Challenged ain the Shenandoah Valley Junior-Senior High School curriculum for violence, language, and unflattering references to God

2000 - Pennsylvania - Challenged in a Bristol Borough middle school for violence and language

2001 - South Carolina - Greenville school board voted to keep the book

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

Sources:

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

Goodreads

Common Sense Media

American Library Association

American Libraries Magazine

Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle

in

 

An disembodied voice commands an artist to draw a star and the hellish helix of conditioned response spirals out of control. The universe is created and destroyed at the whim of a madman or madwoman and all you, the reader, can do is hold on for dear life. The art's nice, too.

Banned

Texas - Aldine Independent School District (Houston) Magrill Elementary for Sexual Content and Nude illustration

1996 - Washington - Challenged in the elementry school libraries of Edmonds School District for illustrations of nude man and women

1999 - New York - Challenged but retained in the Dorothy B Bunce Elementary School library in Pavilion after parent' objective of an illustrations of nude man and women based on Adamn and Eve mythology

#61 on 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/

Paper Towns by John Green

in
Paper Towns
By John Green

A boy likes this girl who helps him realize the world is… something. Fucking teenagers, right?

Banned

2014, Pasco County, Florida - The book was removed from a middle school reading list after a parent complained about the book's language, talk of masturbation, and sexual situations. The book was reinstated after multiple complaints.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

in
Green Eggs and Ham
By Dr.Seuss

Follow Sam I Am as he attempts to gather the soul of another victim by forcing him to eat rotten food through persistence.

Banned

Banned in China until 1991 for its depiction of early Marxism.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

Sources:

Goodreads

NYPL

The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N McIntyre

in
The Moon and the Sun
By Vonda N. McIntyre

In the court of Louis the Roman Numeral, some dude caught a mermaid, and the French aristocracy proves it will eat anything. Throw in a love story, some courtly junk, and lots of descriptions of bedazzled clothes and you got a long ass book. Will the sea woman be free or will Louis the Sun King eat it and become immortal? Find out, I guess.

Banned

No outright bans or challenges, but I guess the sea person community would be pissed. There's talk about religious intolerance, violence, sex, menstruation, slavery, and tons of bullshit about aristocracy.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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

Serena by Ron Rash

in

A rich couple start murdering everybody so they can cut as much timber as possible in 1930s North Carolina. In between all the murder and death are weird sections with an eagle, a lot about logging in Appalachia, and land deals surrounding the creation of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. And the eagle fights a dragon. Just have to squeeze that in.

Banned

Outside of critics of the movie starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence to keep away from theaters, the book has been pretty well received.

That being said, the book starts off with a pretty gruesome murder by knife fight and doesn't hold back about the reality of logging in the early 20th century. Folks die and are maimed by the job.

Other issues addressed include society's double standard about teen pregnancy, miscarriages, sexual situations, issues with authority, religious ideas, paganism, and various dubious business practices.

"Dances and Dames"

Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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