Here’s the rest of our staff favorites among books challenged or banned somewhere in the U.S. There are some great reads here:
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
A novel of a love affair between an upper class British woman and her husband’s gamekeeper post World War I, the sex scenes and the language are explicit. The book was declared “obscene” by the U.S. government in 1929. It was banned from the mails and Customs seized any copies citizens attempted to bring into the country. A Boston bookseller and his clerk were fined and jailed for selling the book. The novel was sold in expurgated form for thirty years before a Federal District Court ruled in 1959 that it now met changing community standards. The Postmaster General continued to ban it from the mails for some period after that.
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
A funny and joyful book of poems mostly for children (but much enjoyed by adults as well) challenged and banned in a variety of places by people without much sense of humor!
Like Water for Chocolate: a novel in monthly installments with recipes, romances and home remedies by Laura Esquivel
A Mexican romantic fantasy with recipes. This book was challenged as a high school elective reading assignment for “sexually explicit and inappropriate material.”
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
A story told with shifting points of view and stream-of-consciousness ramblings about a junkie who struggles to free himself from the destructive effects of addictions. Our staff fan says the book is a clever melding of the real and the fantastic. An essay describing drugs and drug use from the book was published in The British Journal of Addiction. This was the last book declared obscene and brought to trial in the U.S. (1959). In 1966, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared that the book was “grossly offensive” but that it was “not utterly without redeeming social value.” They ruled that the book could be sold within the state though not advertised in a way to “appeal to purient interests.”
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green
A Jewish girl in small town Arkansas during World War 2 meets and befriends a German prisoner of war. She must cope with the consequences of her friendship in a petty family and small minded community. The book was challenged as curriculum material in Connecticut because it contains profanity and was said to provide bad examples.
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
A young donkey goes missing and his parents, the neighbors (cats, dogs, horses, pigs), and concerned police (pigs) try to find him. He eventually turns back from a stone into himself and is reunited with his loving family. This picture book has been challenged and in some cases removed from libraries because of opposition to the portrayal of police as pigs, despite the apparent positive intention of the author.
Too Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Scout, a twelve year old girl in a small Alabama town, witnesses her father’s defense of a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. Her childhood is shattered by the hostility of the townspeople. The novel has been repeatedly challenged and not-infrequently banned because of objections to its use of the word “nigger” and other swear words and to its handling of racial issues.
Where’s Waldo by Martin Hanford
For twenty years small children, their parents and grandparents have been looking for funny-looking Waldo in the midst of complex scenes, developing pre-reading skills and having a ball. Hanford has written and illustrated many new Waldo books as well. However, the book has been challenged for “pictures of dirty things,” and the tiny picture of a woman on a crowded beach with a bikini bottom but no top.
You still have a few days to enter our contest for one of our stunning I Read Banned Books @ Avon Lake Public Library t-shirts. Just come in and fill out an entry blank with your favorite banned book, your name and local phone number or send us an email at refdeskATavonlake.lib.oh.us with the information before Friday, Oct. 6. We’ll draw entries for twenty adult and five child size t-shirts on Oct. 8. You might be a lucky winner!
Posted by cindythelibrarian 
Posted by cindythelibrarian 
Posted by jbr2 
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