Freedom to Read Week–Correction! (Banned Book Week)

This week is Freedom to Read Week, otherwise known as, Banned Book Week. (Later note:) Nope, I screwed up, this is actually Banned Book Week (which is American). Freedom to Read Week (Canadian version) is actually in February. Oops!

Even though this week was the highlight of the year when I was a YA librarian, I somehow forgot about this week. (Later note: Maybe because we celebrated the Canadian version, being Canadian and all. Maybe the cold I’m finally getting over didn’t give me as much brain damage as I first thought.) I know! Impossible. Unreal. Thankfully, Yvonne Osborne saved the day. She’s having a writing challenge over on her blog–try to write something worthy of being banned or challenged.

There are piles of lists out on the internet that are challenged or banned classics, 50 banned books that everyone should read (includes great background on why each book has been banned), the most commonly challenged books in the US (some of these are ridiculous), and more. Many more lists.

Harry Potter was a huge ‘offender’ years ago and he topped all the current lists. It’s nice to see that the hubbub around that has died down. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging (kissing) is a British YA diary which is hilarious, and not at all as bad as it title leads you to assume, is on the list. Of course, Judy Blume is on the list. A few years back, Meg Cabot kept hoping to get one of her books challenged and she finally got one a few years ago. She claims it is an honor to be on those lists. I can kind of see that. Look at the big names on those lists. As well, it means your words have got someone thinking and challenging their personal or world beliefs.

Yvonne asked readers over on AQ, as well as on her blog how many banned/challenged books they have read. Good question. Which list do you use? Does it count if you started reading them?

Here’s my ‘have-read’ list (from the three a fore-mentioned lists):

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Couldn’t get through it–ban it!)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (Darn that talking, bumbling bear. What is he trying to do–scare our kids into thinking hephalumps are real?)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Again, imagination is deadly, folks.)
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Babel fish, talking robots, dang, better ban it.)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. (One of the few fantasy books I’ve enjoyed. Better ban it. You don’t want me reading that good stuff.)
The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.(Read and own all 7)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe. (Wasn’t able to finish this one. The message kept hitting me over the head, again and again and again. I was already sold on the idea of slavery being bad. Can I still count it?)
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. (Couldn’t get through this one. It was the rape scene–also why it was banned. I don’t think that makes it ban-worthy. Just put-it-down worthy in my case.
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. (Fantastic story. Loved it.)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging Louise Rennison
Go Ask Alice Anonymous
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky (Seriously one of the most popular books in school back in the early 2000s.)
Where’s Waldo? Martin Handford (Puh-lease. Don’t we have anything better to do than ban find-the-geek-in-the-crowd? Oh, right. They are addictive. Never mind.)

34, if I include the 3 I couldn’t get through. I think I need to read more banned/challenged books as there are some great ones that I’ve always meant to read on those lists. There were also some kids books I may have read ages ago, but I couldn’t recall so I didn’t include them. I’m pretty sure I read Blubber by Judy Blume though. Maybe I need to re-read it.

Just realized that I HAVE read S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. So, 35.