Banned Books Week-Celebrate the Freedom to Read

Censorship is an issue near and dear to my heart. That's why I am always so happy when Banned Books Week rolls around. Literary rebels everywhere can rejoice that Banned Books Week is now celebrating it's 30th Anniversary. So even though censorship is sadly still alive and kicking, so is fighting it. And we can celebrate our continued struggle to advocate for our right to choose what we read and how we think.

I am always amazed at some of the books that are challenged and why. I've included the list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2011. (You'll note that To Kill A Mockingbird made the list again this year. I am always amazed that superb novels such as this are perennially challenged.)

Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2011

ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism