The books they don’t want you to read!
Recently I came across an article about books that have been
banned – someone, somewhere thinks that these books
shouldn’t be read by the rest of us. The very idea that someone
doesn’t want me to do something has exactly the opposite
effect so now I want to read some of these titles if only to find
out why they might have been banned. Sometimes a book isn’t
banned outright, but it may be abridged and have certain
passages removed.
I suppose you might expect a government to ban a book that
might endanger the country, but bans are more likely to occur if
a book has political and religious ideas against those of a
country’s rulers! I was very surprised that quite a lot of the
books I came across have been banned in the United States of
America, often by individual schools. Even William
Shakespeare seems to offend some teachers!
I have searched the Young Calibre library and found a number
of books that have been on a list of banned books.
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
15138
Tom is inquisitive, lazy and a menace to his Aunt Polly but a
sombre undercurrent flows under the humour and nostalgia of
the novel.
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
9495
When Huckleberry Finn flees from his brutal father, he meets
up with an old friend, the slave Jim, who is also running away
and together they travel by raft down the Mississippi.
These two books by Mark Twain have been banned several
times in America. Lately that has been because they use
language that we would now consider to be racist, but Mark
Twain was opposed to racism and slavery, and was a friend of
the anti-slavery campaigner Harriet Beecher Stowe.
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
15002
When Alice falls down a rabbit hole she finds herself in the
curious world of Wonderland encountering such characters as
the White Rabbit, the March Hare and the Cheshire Cat.
Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story was banned in China in
1931 for having animals acting like humans. The censor,
General Ho Chien, thought that this was an insult to humans.
ANGUS, THONGS AND FULL FRONTAL SNOGGING 16165
Meet Georgia Nicolson, fourteen years old and full of teenage
angst. Read her diary and you will howl with laughter.
Louise Rennison’s books about Georgia Nicolson have been
banned in some American schools because they contain frank
references to life as a teenager.
BLACK BEAUTY
17141
Black Beauty starts life as a handsome colt, with a white foot
and a white star on his forehead, and spirited but sweettempered nature. Moved from place to place and job to job, his
life is hard and uncertain - until a chance encounter leads to a
new turn of events.
Anna Sewell’s classic extolling the virtues of kindness was
banned in South Africa during the apartheid era because it had
the word ‘black’ in the title.
THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL
16061
In July 1942, thirteen year old Anne Frank and her family fled
from the horrors of Nazi occupation, and went into hiding in an
Amsterdam warehouse. Over the next two years Anne vividly
describes in her diary the frustration of living in such confined
quarters.
Anne Frank’s wartime diary was banned in the Lebanon for its
favourable portrayal of a Jewish family.
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE 15990
Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy until he is rescued by
an owl and taken to Hogwart's School where he learns he is a
wizard.
J K Rowling’s popular book has been banned in some
Christian schools in both America and the UK for promoting
witchcraft. Perhaps they have forgotten it is a story!
HIS DARK MATERIALS TRILOGY:
NORTHERN LIGHTS
15983
THE SUBTLE KNIFE
16057
THE AMBER SPY GLASS
16147
When Lyra's friend Roger disappears, her quest to find him
leads her to a bleak and mysterious world. Lyra meets Will and
together they brave the unsettling world of Cittagazze. Faced
with ever increasing danger, they realise that the survival of
everything will depend on one simple action!
Philip Pullman’s trilogy has been very popular, but it has been
criticised in America for being an attack on the church and
religion. Whilst it has not been banned some editions for the
American market have been censored and passages have
been removed.
JUNK
16706
Gemma doesn't want to be tied down - she wants to fly. But noone can fly forever, even with the help of junk!
There were calls Melvin Burgess’ gritty and realistic novel
about heroin addiction among a group of Bristol teenagers, to
be banned when it was first published in 1996. It won the
Carnegie Medal and The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
and has since appeared as a set text for schools.
LORD OF THE FLIES
16782
A plane crashes on a desert island and a group of schoolboys,
the only survivors, wait to be rescued. At night they are all
haunted by dreams of a terrifying beast. Gradually their dreams
and behaviour change into something more primitive and
savage.
Despite widespread acclaim and popularity William Golding’s
book has been banned by critics for a number of reasons,
especially violence, language and racism.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY:
THE FELLOWSIP OF THE RING
5909
THE TWO TOWERS
5977
THE RETURN OF THE KING
6045
The dark forces are gathering and Lord Sauron needs only one
thing to complete his evil power, the Ruling Ring of Power. This
is in the keeping of Bilbo Baggins in the Shire. Can the Hobbits
and their friends destroy the Ring before it falls to Sauron?
J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Christian, but these books were
seen as satanic, and in 2001 copies were burnt by members of
a Christian church in New Mexico!
REVOLTING RHYMES
15459
Humorous version of favourite nursery stories.
Roald Dahl's parody of classic children's fairy tales replaces
the traditional 'happy ever afters' with something else
altogether... most of the characters meet gruesome endings. It
regularly features on the American Library Association's list of
banned books.
THERE IS NO DOG
17149
Imagine that God is a typical teenage boy. He is lazy, careless,
self-obsessed, sex-mad - and about to meet Lucy, the most
beautiful girl on earth. Unfortunately, whenever Bob falls in
love, disaster follows. Let us pray that Bob does not fall in love
with Lucy.
In 2011, a school in Somerset banned a visit from Meg Rosoff,
author of THERE IS NO DOG after learning of the content of
the book.
TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD
5482
Set in the Deep South of America during the Depression, this is
a tale of racial inequality seen through the eyes of six-year-old
Scout Finch, whose father Atticus agrees to defend a black
man accused of raping a white girl.
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel is frequently
censored in American schools due to the racial issues it
confronts, and its stereotypical portrayal of a black character.
Remember, someone, somewhere really doesn’t want you to
read any of these books! Try some of them and see if you
would also have banned them.
Christine Ronaldson