Comments (11)

By Mom Unplugged, October 1, 2009 9:45 pm

Thank you to on-the-ball “Mom” of Mom and Kiddo for reminding me that this is Banned Books Week sponsored by the American Library Association. Between last week’s Turnoff Week, our weekend trip to Phoenix, and my littlest home with the flu, I just plain forgot.

Since Banned Books Week doesn’t end until Sunday, October 3rd, there is still time to read a banned (or almost banned) book to your children. Remind them that they have a right to read!

Did you know that there are some fantastic children’s and young adult books that have either been banned, or attempted to be banned?

(TIP: I love these books, but obviously please make make sure that the subject matter meets with your child’s maturity level before offering as a reading choice. My children are still too young for some of these, but I have most of them saved from my childhood - or later - because I enjoyed them so.)

Here’s a list of some of my favorites:

• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

• The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory also by Roald Dahl

• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

• Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

• A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

• Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings, again, by Shel Silverstein

• The Giving Tree, yet again by Shel Silverstein (you naughty boy!!)!

• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (again)

• 1984 by George Orwell

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

• Lord of the Flies by William Golding

• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

• All of the Harry Potter Books by J.K. Rowling

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

The oddest ban that I found?

• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

or maybe

• Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (you can get one of these dictionaries for as little as $0.01 plus shipping on Amazon if you want to read through it and try and figure what all the fuss is about)

And in my opinion, the most hypocritically banned young adult book of all time:

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

There are many more:

MORE BANNED BOOKS LINKS:

Challenged Children’s Books

Books Banned at One Time or Another in the United States

Amazon: So You’d Like to Read Banned Children’s Books

Banned Books: From Harriet the Spy to Catcher in the Rye

S-Collection: Challenged Children’s Books