If you're not much of a reader you probably don't know much about banned books. Banned books are pieces of literature that contain controversial subjects, ideas, or themes. For one reason or another these books were banned.
However, banned books are an important part of culture. It gives insight on topics you might not have even discussed. They challenge society and question reality. For me, they were surreal experiences into life that became some of my favorite books of all time. Many banned books are actually award-winning novels and are worth the read.
1. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
The Invisible Man isn't some magician act, it's a story of an African American man whose color renders him invisible. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African Americans early in the twentieth century and caused some uproar.Excerpts of the book were banned in Butler, PA (1975), removed from the high school English reading list in St. Francis, WI (1975), retained in the Yakima, WA schools (1994) after a five-month dispute over what advanced high school students should read in the classroom. Two parents raised concerns about profanity and images of violence and sexuality in the book and requested that it be removed from the reading list.
2. Persepolis,by Marjane Satrapi
This book is a graphic autobiography that depicts the author's childhood life to her early adult years in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. In March 2013, Chicago Public Schools removed copies from grade 7 classrooms and reviewed for use in grade 8 – 10 classrooms. Following the district’s review, grade 8 – 10 teachers who wish to use the book in their classrooms are now required to first complete supplemental training. Persepolis remains banned from CPS classrooms below grade 8. Persepolis faced three more school challenges in the years after 2014.
3. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
An astounding young-adult novel about soldiers in the Vietnam war. A controversial war makes a controversial war novel even more likely. Fallen Angels was #11 on the list of top 100 Banned/Challenged books from 2000-2009 and #36 from 1990-1999, according to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, which cites “Reasons: offensive language, racism, violence.”
4. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
A wonderful tale of women joined by their love for each other, the men who abuse them, and the children they care for. Alright, Ms. Walker's book was challenged as appropriate reading for Oakland, CA High School honors class (1984) due to the work's "sexual and social explicitness" and its "troubling ideas about race relations, man's relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality." There are several other challenges of the book, but the list is too long to include in this article.
5. Go Ask Alice, by Beatrice Sparks
A fiction book about a teenage girl who develops a drug habit at age 15 and runs away from home on a journey of self-destructive escapism. Attributed to "Anonymous", the book is in diary form and was originally presented as being the edited "real diary" of the unnamed teenage protagonist.This piece remained #18 on Top Challenged books 2000-2009 for due to language and sexual content.
6. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene
Even though she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi, but as a lonely, frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own. It was challenged for racism, offensive language, and being sexually explicit and claimed as "subject matter that set bad examples and gives students negative views of life." It placed #55 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2005.
Have you heard of these books before? Will you take a chance and dive into any banned books? Remember if they make you uncomfortable, that's the point. You're supposed to reflect and think about these topics.