In honor of Banned Books Week, I present two lists (limited to ten representative books each): banned and challenged books I enjoyed, and banned and challenged books that I found boring — certainly not worth getting worked up over. The point is, I had the choice to read these books and make my own decisions. I don’t think books should be banned, whether or not I like them, dislike them, find them offensive, or don’t care about them. We all should have the chance to decide for ourselves.*
(Both lists are presented alphabetically by author.)
- Banned books I’ve loved:
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
- Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
- A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
- A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
- The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
- Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
- Harry Potter (series), by J. K. Rowling
- In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
- A Light in the Attic, by Shel Silverstein
- The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Banned books I’ve read but not enjoyed:
- Flowers in the Attic, by V. C. Andrews
- Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene
- Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
- Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
- The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton
- Animal Farm, by George Orwell
- Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
- A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
- The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
- The Pigman, by Paul Zindel
Go read a banned book this week. The ALA has some comprehensive lists, based on author, year, decade, and classic status. Start here.
*Okay, yes, parents have the right to make some decisions for their children. I’ve told my son he’s not ready for Stephen King. That’s just common sense — if Goosebumps books give him nightmares, It would surely traumatize him. But we’ve been reading the Ranger’s Apprentice series together, so we’ve talked about drug addiction, which is a major point in one of the books. We’ve talked — because of news, often — about how some people love the opposite sex and some love the same sex. I hope he doesn’t come across more graphic material, but if he does, he knows he can talk to us about it. Age-appropriate learning about what the world is like outside our house, not how we think it should be in some utopia — that’s what we try to give our children.
