(Untitled)

[missy_sue]

List of the top 110 banned books (of all time). Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've read part of. Read more. Convince others to read some.

#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#4 The Koran
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 Canterbury

Comments

[theatresporter]

why the heck was James and the Giant Peach banned?!

[mtuandrew]

I just posed that question in my LJ, and here's the response I got from iwhall: http://www.bookslut.com/banned_bookslut/2003_12_001147.php

[vereorc]

According to this website, Little House on the Prairie was:

Challenged at the Lafourche Parish elementary school libraries in Thibodaux, La. (1993) because the book is "offensive to Indians." Banned in the Sturgis, S. Dak. elementary school classrooms (1993) due to statements considered derogatory to Native Americans. It always amazes me how people would rather ignore or revile literature from a past era, rather than use it to teach acceptance and tolerance. Obviously the characters depicted in the novel do not have "politically correct" 21st century viewpoints. Why not use the opportunity to discuss how things have (hopefully) changed?

[mtuandrew]

It's probably because teachers are afraid that they won't be able to explain it well enough to keep people from getting hurt. It really is amusing and revolting to see how people regarded Native Americans in the last century... then again, I'm not one, so it's a lot easier for me to look at it with a "oh, that's just stupid" feeling than a "hey, that's my tradition they're insulting" feeling.

[vereorc]

It's probably because teachers are afraid that they won't be able to explain it well enough to keep people from getting hurt.

I dunno about that. I took a couple of classes on (teaching) children's literature. Both instructors spent a great deal of time making sure that we, as possible future teachers, knew how to construct rationales for all the books we would use in the classroom. We were taught to prepare to defend against ANY possible criticisms that the school or the parents might come up with against the book.

[riki_kiki_taco]

I highly doubt the teachers had much say in the matter. My mother taught for long before I was born, up til a few years ago, and you'd be surprised at how much the parents and community tend to butt in.

~kiki

[that_red_girl]

I can tell we took different Dassbach courses. . . because I've read several of the above books just for that man, and you hadn't. ;)

[riki_kiki_taco]

Found this book in our library a few years ago, about what happens in a school where Huckleberry Finn becomes a challenged book. Really interesting story.

~kiki

[riki_kiki_taco]

p.s. This is a different list than the one listed outside my door...with different colored check marks from people I've asked to check which ones they've read... Of course, I think mine is for 2001 or something. That one (I believe) includes the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, which is the story of his time in the concentration camps. We read that one in ninth grade. A girl in the other class actually got a permission slip from her mother stating that her daughter should NOT be made to read the book. Yeah.

~kiki