Happy banned book week!

I'm listening to Huckleberry Finn (#5) to celebrate--the kids got the tape from the library for lights out listening pleasure. Here's a list of 100 most frequently challenged books so you can celebrate too.
So ... anyone want to guess why Where's Waldo made that list?

Thanks for the link, Guanna.

Comments

  1. Douglas Hoffman11:10 AM

    Hmmm. Because it teaches kids to look critically at graphic images?

    I was surprised to see that Ragtime isn't on the list. My sister, a high school English teacher, routinely uses Ragtime because the kids dig the sex scenes. There's a scene where one woman is giving another woman a massage (a GOOD one) and there's a guy hiding in a closet playing with himself.

    But I suspect the nutjobs who challenge books don't actually read the books they challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Veronica3:19 PM

    Is Waldo gay?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wendy3:37 PM

    Wendy's favorite challenged/banned books are: Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck (which makes me cry like a baby) and Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes (again with the crying). Both poignant, touching, heartbreaking books challenged due to sexual content (most of which flew over my head when I first read these titles as a teenager!) and language. Oh the bad language!

    Like kids aren't saying and doing a whole lot worse in the high school parking lot.....

    ReplyDelete
  4. THIS! Christine4:40 PM

    I have to admit to being confused by the list. (admittedly I didn't delve very far). Are these books banned or merely contested. Where is the actual list of banned books, or is their very mention also banned?

    X

    ReplyDelete
  5. elswhere8:17 PM

    Ooh! Ooh! I know why!!

    But that's probably cheating, since I'm a school librarian, and all.

    I just taught a Banned Book Week class to a bunch of middle schoolers. (Three bunches, actually, one after another.) I put a bunch of books on the tables and made 'em guess which was the most challenged or banned. One kid guessed it right away, because he'd read that book as a kid and said it was "freaky."

    Blog readers can find out what it is by clicking on the link Kate kindly provided. Hint: it has nothing to do with sex.

    Happy Banned Book Week!

    ReplyDelete

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