Book Banning

By weeklyrob on October 5, 2009 in Language/Lit

book burning

I’ve posted before about book bannings. This time, I’ll just link without comment to a list of the most frequently challenged books of 2008.

BruceS October 6, 2009 at 9:10 am #

I was hoping I’d see a bunch of old favorites, but no dice. The only book on the list that I’m familiar with is _The Kite Runner_, and I can’t argue with it being inappropriate for younger readers. My approach wouldn’t involve banning, just keeping it off required reading lists. And maybe putting on a large red warning label “BAD SCARY MEAN PEOPLE! NOT REALLY ABOUT KITES!” If we’re going to ban books, it should be for being trite, mindless drivel. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the kind of book the gets kids into reading in the first place.

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weeklyrob October 6, 2009 at 10:28 am #

I haven’t checked to see whether it’s been challenged only at children’s school libraries, for required reading lists, or at regular ol’ adult libraries.

I see that one of the causes of challenges is that it’s unsuitable for a given age group.

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BruceS October 7, 2009 at 9:57 am #

They don’t say what age group they mean, so I assumed it was elementary school kids, and the banning from elementary school libraries.
Oh, and :g/e get/s//at get

If I wrote a book, I’d want to get it on these lists right away. Not only would that get more young people to read it (just to find out why it was being banned), but maybe it would encourage people all over the country to buy copies so they could publicly burn them.

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