Top 100 Challenged Books, 1990-2000
Or from the top challenges since 2000:
1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
2. "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
3. Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
4. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
5. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
6. "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
7. "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris
8. Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz
9. Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
10. "Forever" by Judy Blume
And celebrate your continued access to books that *other people* find offensive by reading them!
I don't like all these books, not by a long shot. I *do* like some of them. And I think that is of essence here - should which books I like or don't like dictate the ability of others to access them? NO! If Reverend Head-Up-His-Ass who has never even READ Harry Potter wants them banned and urges his congregation to file complaints at every opportunity (it actually seems very common that people who complain about books have never even read the book they are complaining about, at least in those accounts I've read) - that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH ME and should not affect my ability to access those books.
This is not an arguement about whether these books are crappy, but rather, about whether we have a right to read and like books that other people think are crappy.
And allow me to just point out how shockingly stupid this concept is given what is readily and constantly available on television sets in everyone's living rooms. At least you have to work to get into and through a challenged book. There are a good number of titles on there that never say anything you can't find on the evening programming for The Disney Channel.
1 comment:
You're a good egg, my love, a very good egg.
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