FOR MORE RECOMMENDATIONS
Try these resources. For assistance in learning to use any of the following,
please ask at Information & Reference. We’re here to help you!
♦♦
MORE Catalog—Recommendations based on Goodreads
database.
♦♦
Novelist—Read-alikes and genre suggestions galore.
♦♦
Book Link—Personalized book recommendations prepared by our
staff. Available on the library’s website under the Services tab.
Banned Books Week
Sept. 25–Oct. 1, 2016
Diversity
SOURCES used in creating this Book Link brochure:
“Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read.” Banned & Challenged
Books. 2016. Accessed September 14, 2016. http://www.ala.org/bbooks
/bannedbooksweek.
“Banned Books Week.” Banned Books Week. Accessed September 14, 2016.
http://bannedbooksweek.org/.
“Defining Diversity.” Banned Books Week. Accessed September 14, 2016.
http://bannedbooksweek.org/node/9416.
“Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009.” Banned & Challenged Books.
2013. Accessed September 14, 2016. http://www.ala.org/bbooks/top-100
-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009.
“Most Frequently Challenged Authors of the 21st Century.” Banned & Challenged
Books. 2013. Accessed September 14, 2016. http://www.ala.org/bbooks
/frequentlychallengedbooks/challengedauthors.
A BOOK LINK GUIDE
WWW.ECPUBLICLIBRARY.INFO
715-839-5004
9/2016 SD
Photo: RADAR Productions
What is Banned Books Week?
Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2015
[I]t’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that
will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the
fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.
—Judy Blume
Banned Books Week is an annual event
celebrating the freedom to read. The purpose
of this week is to highlight the value of free
and open access to information. Librarians,
teachers, students, and community members
are called to be defenders for the free flow
of information. It is thanks in large part to
their efforts that, in the majority of cases,
challenged books continue to be available.
Banned Books Week gives us the opportunity
to bring attention to the harmful effects of
censorship.
Banned Books Week 2016 Celebrates Diversity
As staff of the Office for Intellectual Freedom was compiling the list of
2015 Top Ten Challenged Books, they noticed that a high percentage fell
into the category of “diverse content.” One of the partners for the Banned
Books Week coalition offered the following definition: “We recognize all
diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, people of
color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and
religious minorities.”
Novels That Have Faced the Most Challenges
♦♦ Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling
♦♦ Alice (series) / Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
♦♦ The Chocolate War / Robert Cormier
♦♦ And Tango Makes Three / Justin
Richardson & Peter Parnell
♦♦ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings /
Maya Angelou
♦♦ Scary Stories (series) / Alvin Schwartz
♦♦ His Dark Materials (series) / Philip
Pullman
♦♦ The Perks of Being a Wallflower /
Stephen Chobsky
♦♦ It’s Perfectly Normal / Robie Harris
♦♦ The Giver / Lois Lowry
♦♦ The Lovely Bones / Alice Sebold
♦♦ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest /
Ken Kesey
♦♦ Slaughterhouse-five / Kurt Vonnegut
♦♦ The Kite Runner / Khaled Hosseini
♦♦ Forever / Judy Blume
1. Looking for Alaska / John Green
reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group.
2. Fifty Shades of Grey / E.L. James
reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, “poorly written,”
“concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it.”
3. I Am Jazz / Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint,
unsuited for age group.
4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out / Susan Kuklin
reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education,
political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, “wants to
remove from collection to ward off complaints.”
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time / Mark Haddon
reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group,
“profanity and atheism.”
6. The Holy Bible
reasons: Religious viewpoint.
7. Fun Home / Alison Bechdel
reasons: Violence, “graphic images.”
8. Habibi / Craig Thompson
reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit,
unsuited for age group.
9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afganistan / Jeanette Winter
reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, violence.
10. Two Boys Kissing / David Levithan
reasons: Homosexuality, “condones public displays of affection.”
Best Selling Authors Who Have Faced Challenges
♦♦ Sherman Alexie
♦♦ Aldous Huxley
♦♦ J.K. Rowling
♦♦ Judy Bloom
♦♦ E.L. James
♦♦ Alvin Schwartz
♦♦ John Green
♦♦ Toni Morrison
♦♦ Sonya Sones
♦♦ Kim Dong Hwa
♦♦ Walter Dean Myers
♦♦ John Steinbeck