It’s Banned Books Week!
September 22-28 marks the annual Banned Books celebration of books banned or challenged in America for a whole host of reasons – violence, vulgar language, and the perennial catch-all “inappropriate content.”
Banned Books Week was started in 1982 by the American Library Association (ALA) to spotlight a growing number of challenges to books in schools, libraries and bookstores. Since 1982, more than 11,000 books have been challenged, including English class staples like “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck and “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.
(A challenge, as defined on the ALA web site: “is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. The number of challenges reflects only incidents reported.”)
The list of most-challenged books from the 21st century, as maintained by the ALA, includes: