When a person challenges a book, they are attempting to remove or restict access to that book. If they are successful, then the book is banned.

Every year, across the country, books are challenged in schools and libraries for their "inappropriate" content.

Banning books is a challenge to your First Amendment rights and takes away an individual's right to choose material that is appropriate for yourself or your family.

"Celebrate the Freedom to Read" by reading a book from the American Library Association’s (ALA) banned book list.

For more information visit the American Library Association’s (ALA) Banned and Challenged Books website.

Background Information from 2001 to 2010

Over the past ten years, American libraries were faced with 4,660 challenges.

• 1,536 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;
• 1,231 challenges due to “offensive language”;
• 977 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;
• 553 challenges due to “violence”
• 370 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and

Further, 121 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 304 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”

1,720 of these challenges (approximately 37%) were in classrooms; 30% (or1,432) were in school libraries; 24% (or 1,119) took place in public libraries.  There were 32 challenges to college classes; and 106 to academic libraries.  There are isolated cases of challenges to materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and student groups.  The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 48%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (10% each).

Information taken from American Library Association's website http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged/index.cfm

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J. K. Rowling

Call Number: WB 813.2 ROW797S6

ISBN: 0590353403

Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Reasons: occult/Satanism

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling

Call Number: WB 813.2 ROW797C4

ISBN: 0439064864

When the Chamber of Secrets is opened again at the Hogswart School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, second-year student Harry Potter finds himself in danger from a dark power that has once more been released on the school.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Reasons: occult/Satanism

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling

Call Number: WB 813.2 ROW797P7

ISBN: 0439136350

During his third year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter must confront the devious and dangerous wizard responsible for his parents' deaths.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Reasons: occult/Satanism

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling

Call Number: WB 813.2 ROW797G6

ISBN: 0439139597

Fourteen-year-old Harry Potter joins the Weasleys at the Quidditch World Cup, then enters his fourth year at Hogwarts Academy where he is mysteriously entered in an unusual contest that challenges his wizarding skills, friendships and character, amid signs that an old enemy is growing stronger.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Reasons: occult/Satanism

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling

Call Number: WB 813.2 ROW797O7

ISBN: 0439567610

When the government of the magic world and authorities at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry refuse to believe in the growing threat of a freshly revived Lord Voldemort, fifteen-year-old Harry Potter finds support from his loyal friends in facingthe evil wizard and other new terrors.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Reasons: occult/Satanism

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling

Call Number: WB 813.2 ROW797H2

ISBN: 0439784549

Sixth-year Hogwarts student Harry Potter gains valuable insights into the boy Voldemort once was, even as his own world is transformed by maturing friendships, schoolwork assistance from an unexpected source, and devastating losses.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Reasons: occult/Satanism

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling

Call Number: WB 813.2 ROW797D4

ISBN: 9780545010221

Burdened with the dark, dangerous, and seemingly impossible task of locating and destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes, Harry, feeling alone and uncertain about his future, struggles to find the inner strength he needs to follow the path set out before him.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Reasons: occult/Satanism

Alice in Rapture, Sort of - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Call Number: WB 813.2 NAY234A5

ISBN: 0689314663

The summer before she enters the seventh grade becomes the summer of Alice's first boyfriend, and she discovers that love is about the most mixed-up thing that can possibly happen to you, especially since she has no mother to go to for advice.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language and sexually explicit

The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier

Call Number: WB 813.2 COR814C4 2004

ISBN: 0375829873

A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

And Tango Makes Three - Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Call Number: WB 813.3 RIC394A6

ISBN: 9780689878459

At New York City's Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Homosexuality

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Call Number: WB 813.2 STE34O

ISBN: 0553110098

In Depression-era California, two migrant workers dream of better days on a spread of their own until an act of unintentional violence leads to tragic consequences.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language, racism, and violence

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

Call Number: E185.97.A56 A3 1969

ISBN: 0394429869

A black woman recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sexually explicit

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - Alvin Schwartz

Call Number: WB 398 SCH95S

ISBN: 0397319266

Stories of ghosts and witches, "jump" stories, scary songs, and modern-day scary stories.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence

The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman

Call Number: WB 813.2 PUL967G6 2006

ISBN: 0375838309

Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman

Call Number: WB 813.2 PUL967S8

ISBN: 0679879250

As the boundaries between worlds begin to dissolve, Lyra and her daemon help Will Parry in his search for his father and for a powerful, magical knife.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

The Amber Spyglass - Philip pullman

Call Number: WB 813.2 PUL967A6

ISBN: 0679879269

Lyra and Will find themselves at the center of a battle between the forces of the Authority and those gathered by Lyra's father, Lord Asriel.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Call Number: WB 813.3 CHB399P3

ISBN: 9780613237529

A coming of age novel about Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. He deals with the usual teen problems, but also with the suicide of his best friend.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Drugs, Suicide

Fallen Angels - Walter Dean Myers

Call Number: 813.2 MYE99F2

ISBN: 0590409425

Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language, racism, violence, and being unsuited to age group

It's Perfectly Normal - Robie Harris

Call Number: WB 612.6 HAR243I8

ISBN: 1564021998

Lots of questions -- What is sex? -- Our bodies -- Puberty --Families and babies -- Decisions -- Staying healthy.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sex education and sexually explicit

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

Call Number: WB 813.2 TWA91A2

ISBN: 0520266102

A nineteenth-century boy, floating down the Mississippi on a raft with a runaway slave, becomes involved with a feuding family, two scoundrels pretending to be royalty, and Tom Sawyer's aunt, who mistakes him for Tom.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
racism

The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison

Call Number: PS3563.O8749 B55 1993

ISBN: 0679433732

Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language, sexually explicity, and unsuited to age group

Forever - Judy Blume

Call Number: WB 813.2 BLU628F6

ISBN: 9780689849732

Two high school seniors believe their love to be so strong that it will last forever.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sexually explicit

The Color Purple - Alice Walker

Call Number: PS3573.A425 C6

ISBN: 0156031825

The lives of two sisters--Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a Southern woman married to a man she hates--are revealed in a series of letters exchanged over thirty years.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
explicit sexuality, profanity, violence, and use of drugs.

Go Ask Alice - Anonymous

Call Number: WB 813.2 GO53

ISBN: 1416914633

Based on the diary of a fifteen-year-old drug user chronicling her struggle to escape the pull of the drug world.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
drugs

Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

Call Number: WB 813.2 SAL328C2 2001

ISBN: 0316769177

Account of the mental gropings and disillusionment of a precocious adolescent on his own in New York City for an eventful weekend.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

King and King - Linda de Haan

Call Number: WB 813.3 HAA111K4

ISBN: 9781582460611

When the queen insists that the prince get married and take over as king, the search for a suitable mate does not turn out as expected.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Homosexuality

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Call Number: PS3562.E353 T6 1999

ISBN: 9780060194994

The explosion of racial hate in an Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends an African American man accused of rape.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

The Giver - Lois Lowry

Call Number: WB 813.2 LOW956G4

ISBN: 0395645662

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sexually explicit, having occult themes, and violence.

In the Night Kitchen - maurice Sendak

Call Number: WB 813.3 SEN55I6

ISBN: 9780060266684

A little boy's dream-fantasy in which he helps three fat bakers get milk for their cake batter.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
nudity

Killing Mr. Griffin - Lois Duncan

Call Number: WB 813.2 DUN913K4

ISBN: 0440945151

A teenager casually suggests playing a cruel trick on the English teacher, but did he intend it to end with murder?

Reasons for being challenge/banned:
violence and offensive language

My Brother Sam is Dead - James Lincoln Collier

Call Number: WB 813.2 COL69M

ISBN: 0439783607

Recounts the tragedy that strikes the Meeker family during the Revolution when one son joins the rebel forces while the rest of the family tries to stay neutral in a Tory town.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language, violence, alcohol, unpatriotic views

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

Call Number: WB 813.2 PAT27B

ISBN: 0690013590

The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.

Reasons for being challenged/banned: occult/satanism and offensive language

The Face on the Milk Carton - Caroline B. Conney

Call Number: WB 813.2 COO782F3

ISBN: 038532328X

A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sexually explicit, anti-authority

Bless Me Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya

Call Number: PS3551.N27 B58 1999

ISBN: 0446675369

Chronicles the story of an alienated New Mexico boy who seeks an answer to his questions about life in his relationship with Ultima, a magical healer

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence

Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson

Call Number: PS3557.U846 S65 1994

ISBN: 0151001006

This mesmerizing exploration of war, love, prejudice, and justice culminates in a dramatic courtroom scene. On a small island in Puget Sound, a Japanese fisherman, accused of killing another fisherman in 1954, faces the kind of prejudice that supposedly disappeared after World War II.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
violence, racism, sexually explicit.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things - Carolyn Mackler

Call Number: WB 813.2 MAC218E2

ISBN: 9780763619589

Feeling like she does not fit in with the other members of her family, who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking, fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Call Number: PR6015.U9 B65 1998

ISBN: 9780060929879

A fantasy of the future that sheds a blazing critical light on the present

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Sexually explicit, offensive language and anti-government

It's So Amazing - Robie Harris

ISBN: 9780763613211

Uses bird and bee cartoon characters to present straightforward explanations of topics related to sexual development, love, reproduction, adoption, sexually transmitted diseases, and more

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sex education and sexual content

Arming America - Michael Bellasiles

Call Number: HV8059 .B45 2000

ISBN: 0375402101

In search of guns -- Arming of the American people.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
inaccurate and political viewpoint

Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane

Call Number: WB 921 MAT42M

ISBN: 0833502115

The true story of a Black youth's coming of age in Apartheid South Africa

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
racism, sexually explicit

Blubber - Judy Blume

Call Number: WB 813.2 BLU628B

ISBN: 0440407079

Jill goes along with the rest of the fifth-grade class in tormenting a classmate and then finds out what it's like when she, too, becomes a target. Reasons for being challenged/banned:offensive language, challenges authority, and sexual content

Athletic Shorts - Chris Crutcher

Call Number: WB 813.2 CRU889A8

ISBN: 0440213908

A collection of short stories featuring characters from earlier books by Chris Crutcher.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
homosexuality and offensive language

Crazy Lady - Jane Leslie Conly

Call Number: WB 813.2 CON7614C

ISBN: 0060213574

As he tries to come to terms with his mother's death, Vernon finds solace in his growing relationship with the neighborhood outcasts, an alcoholic and her retarded son.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Call Number: WB 813.2 VON896S5

ISBN: 0440180295

Billy Pilgrim, a traumatized American POW who survived the Dresden bombing during World War II, becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens. Under their watchful gaze, he must relive his life over and over again, coming at last to some understanding of the human comedy.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Offensive language, violence, and explicit sexuality.

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Call Number: PS3608.O832 K58 2003

ISBN: 1573222453

Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

Daughters of Eve - Lois Duncan

ISBN: 9780440918646

A high school teacher uses the guise of feminist philosophy to manipulate the lives of a group of girls with chilling results

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Offensive language and sexually explicit

The Great Gilly Hopkins - Katherine Paterson

Call Number: WB 813.2 PAT27G

ISBN: 0690038372

An eleven-year-old foster child tries to cope with her longings and fears as she schemes against everyone who tries to be friendly.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language

Summer of my German Soldier - Bette Green

Call Number: WB 813.2 GRE8292SU

ISBN: 9780141306360

Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

When Dad Killed Mom - Julius Lester

ISBN: 9780152046989

When Jenna and Jeremy's father shoots and kills their artist mother, they struggle to slowly rebuild a functioning family

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Homosexuality, violence, inappropriate for age group and troubled children

Blood and Chocolate - Annette Curtis Klause

Call Number: WB 813.2 KLA668B5

ISBN: 0385323050

Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

Call Number: WB 813.2 AND235S7

ISBN: 0142414735

A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
describes rape

Draw Me a Star - Eric Carle

Call Number: WB 813.3 CAR19D6

ISBN: 0399218777

An artist's drawing of a star begins the creation of an entire universe around him as each successive pictured object requests that he draw more.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sexual content and nudity

The Stupids (series) - Harry Allard

Call Number: WB 813.1 ALL52S

ISBN: 0395185130

The Stupid family and their dog Kitty have a fun-filled day doing ridiculous things.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
Anti-authority

The Terrorist - Caroline B. Cooney

ISBN: 0590228536

Sixteen-year-old Laura, an American living in London, tries to find the person responsible for the death of her younger brother Billy, who has been killed by a terrorist bomb

Reason for being challenged/banned:
negative images of the Islamic religion

The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien

Call Number: PS3565.B75 T48 1990

ISBN: 0618706410

A collection of related stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War

Reason for being challenged/banned:
offensive language

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred Taylor

Call Number: WB 813.2 TAY199R56

ISBN: 0142401129

A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Racism and inappropriate for age group

A Time to Kill - John Grisham

ISBN: 9780385338608

In Clanton, Mississippi, 10-year-old Tonya Hailey is viciously raped and beaten by two white racists—James Louis "Pete" Willard and Billy Ray Cobb.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Violence, offensive language and rape

Always Running - Luis Rodriguez

Call Number: HV6439.U72 L77 1994

ISBN: 0671882317

It is a book of a street gang in Los Angeles and of the lives of desperate, impoverished individuals in big cities.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Negative stereotypes, violence, offensive language and pornography

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Call Number: WB 813.2 BRA727F

ISBN: 0345342968

This science fiction tale concerns censorship and anti-intellectualism, carried on in an alternate society that conducts huge book burnings as part of the social agenda. Guy Montag is the main character, a man whose job it is to burn books.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
Offensive language

Junie B. Jones - Barbara Park

Call Number: WB 813.2 PAR2198J23

ISBN: 0679826424

Junie B. Jones is first introduced as a kindergartener and is currently a first grader. Junie B. Jones exemplifies many of the comical aspects of childhood: fear of monsters, grammatical errors, dealing with siblings, the first day of school and innocent crushes.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
Emotions of hatred

Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison

Call Number: PS3563.O8749 S66 1977

ISBN: 0394497848

Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language

What's Happening to My Body Book - Lynda Madaras

ISBN: 9781557047656

Discusses the changes that take place in a boy's body during puberty, including information on the body's changing size and shape, the growth spurt, reproductive organs, pubic hair, beards, pimples, voice changes, wet dreams, and puberty in girls

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
sex education and sexual content

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

Call Number: PS3619.E26 L68 2002

ISBN: 0316666343

This is the tale of family, memory, love, and living told by 14-year-old Susie Salmon, who is already in heaven. Through the voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and builds out of her family's grief a hopeful and joyful story.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
Inappropriate for age group

Anastasia Krupnik - Lois Lowry

Call Number: 813.2 LOW956A65

ISBN: 0395286298

Anastasia's 10th year has some good things like falling in love and really getting to know her grandmother and some bad things like finding out about an impending baby brother.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

ISBN: 0679642595

Owen Meany hits a foul ball while playing baseball in the summer of 1953 that kills his best friend's mother, an accident that Owen is sure is the result of divine intervention. Reasons for being challenged/banned:offensive language and sexually explicit

Crazy - Benjamin Lebert

Call Number: PT2672.E28 C7313 2000

ISBN: 9780375409134

A modern autobiographical coming-of-age novel written when the author was sixteen-years-old. Benni, the protagonist, is partially paralyzed and a serial failure (he's been kicked out of four boarding schools in his short life and has just entered his fifth). So he's a little odd, but he's cool and he finds other strange boys to hang with. Together they set out to experience what they can: girls, booze, sex, philosophy, drugs, sex, books, music, sex, pretty much everything whatever. Reasons for being challenged/banned: sexual content, offensive language and being unsuited to age group

The Joy of Gay Sex - Dr. Charles Silverstein

ISBN: 9780060012748

First published in 1977, "The Joy of Gay Sex became an immediate bestseller and a touchstone of the emerging gay consciousness, offering a delectable first glimpse of gay life and love for countless gay men. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, it has remained an essential reference for gay men worldwide. Reasons for being challenged/banned: Homosexuality and sexual content

The Upstairs Room - Johanna Reiss

Call Number: WB 940.53 REI27U

ISBN: 0690851278

A Dutch Jewish girl describes the two-and-one-half years she spent in hiding in the upstairs bedroom of a farmer's house during World War II

Reason for being challenged/banned:
offensive language

A Day No Pigs Would Die - Robert Newton Peck

Call Number: WB 813.2 PEC3368D2

ISBN: 0394482352

To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be done," especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
violence, sexually explicit, animal cruelty

Black Boy - Richard Wright

Call Number: PS3545.R815 Z5 1966

ISBN: 0061443085

An enduring story of one young man's coming off age during a particular time and place, "Black Boy" remains a seminal text in history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Sexually explicit, offensive language, and violence

Deal With It! - Esther Drill

ISBN: 9780671041571

A guide for teenage girls on ways of coping with problems involving self-esteem, parents, friendship, sexuality, alcohol, drugs, and other subjects

So Far From the Bamboo Grove - Yoko Watkins

Call Number: WB 813.2 WAT328S6

ISBN: 0688131158

A fictionalized autobiography in which eleven-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan with her mother and sister at the end of World War II.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Violence and stereotypes

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes - Chris Crutcher

Call Number: WB 813.2 CRU889S8

ISBN: 0688115527

A suspense novel, with dark humor, about friendship, fear, and making the best of a bad situation. Sarah's hands and face were burned when she was young; Eric was a fat child. They were inseparable as children and became masters at getting back at those who taunted them. Then the truth of Sarah's horrific past catches up with her. Eric must try to help her deal with her pain.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Anti-religion and offensive language

Cut - Patricia McCormick

Call Number: WB 813.2 MCC136C8

ISBN: 1886910618

While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better Reasons for being challenged/banned: unsuited for age group

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Call Number: PR9199.3.A8 H3 1986

ISBN: 0395404258

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Reasons for being challenged/banned: sexually explicit and offensive to religions

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle

Call Number: WB 813.2 LEN547W7 1997

ISBN: 0395771544

Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government. Reasons for being challenged/banned: offensive to religions

Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George

Call Number: WB 813.2 GEO29J

ISBN: 0060219432

While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
unsuited to age group and violence

The Boy Who Lost His Face - Louis Sachar

ISBN: 0679886222

David receives a curse from an elderly woman he has helped his schoolmates attack, and he learns to regret his weakness in pandering to others for the sake of popularity before new friends and a very nice girl help him to be a stronger, more assertive person

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
offensive language and inappropriate for age group

Bumps in the Night - Harry Allard

Call Number: WB 813.1 ALL52B8

ISBN: 0385322828

When he discovers his house is haunted, Dudley Stork enlists the help of his friends to find out what is causing the spooky noises.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
occult/supernatural

Shade's Children - Garth Nix

ISBN: 9780007232123

In a savage postnuclear world, four young fugitives attempt to overthrow the bloodthirsty rule of the Overlords with the help of Shade, their mysterious mentor.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
Inappropriate for age group

Grendel - John Gardner

Call Number: PS3557.A712 G7 1989

ISBN: 0679723110

The Beowulf story retold from the monster's point of view reveals the darker side of human nature and values.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Anti-religious and offensive language

The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende

Call Number: PQ8098.1.L54 C313 1985

ISBN: 0394539079

The Trueba family’s passions, struggles, and secrets span three generations and a century of violent social change, culminating in a crisis that brings the proud and tyrannical patriarch and his beloved granddaughter to opposite sides of the barricades. Against a backdrop of revolution and counterrevolution, Allende brings to life a family whose private bonds of love and hatred are more complex and enduring than the political allegiances that set them at odds.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
sexually explicit

I Saw Esau - Iona Opte

Call Number: WB 811 OPI3I

ISBN: 1564020460

A collection of rhymes and riddles traditionally passed on orally from child to child.

Reason for being challenged/banned:
Inappropriate for age group

Are you There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume

Call Number: WB 813.2 BLU628A 1990

ISBN: 0027109917

Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve-year-old girl talks over her problems with her own private God.

Reasons for being challenged/banned:
Anti-religion and sexually explicit