Banned Books Week

During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around America highlight the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events.

This year’s Banned Books Week will be held from 24 September through 1 October. Banned Books Week, in celebration of the freedom to read, started in 1982 due to a surge in challenges to certain books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,000 books have been challenged since 1982. For more info on Banned Books Week, click here.

The 10 most challenged titles of 2010 were:

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language, racism, religious viewpoint, sex education, sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: sexaully explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: drugs, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group

What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit

Twilight (series), by Stephanie Meyer
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, unsuited to age group

In Australia, the banning of books doesn’t happen quite as often, but if you’re interested in which books have been deemed unsuitable for Australian readers, you can browse the Banned in Australia bibliography, which includes approximately 500 titles.