I skimmed through the American Library Associations banned lists by year and it’s hard to pick one. Crazy to see captain underpants and Harry Potter on those lists. If “witchcraft” or “side characters that just happen to be gay” are the “least” inflammatory reasons to ban (whether or not there is ever a good reason to ban is beyond the scope of this post), it got me thinking if there are books that most would actually agree are “most” worthy of being banned. I imagine extensive/bizarre gore, misinformation, glorifying hate, or maybe just a bad piece of literature not even worth whatever contentious morals it attempts to unpack. I’d be surprised if there was anything worthy, since it seems to be an entirely unnecessary political issue more than a true pediatric/adolescent health issue, but I figured this would be the place to help me find out for myself.
by meowmeowMIXER8
3 Comments
Rage by Stephen King
Mein Kampf or similarly bigoted books such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
IT, for the odd child orgy in the middle.
Game of Thrones for repeated scenes of underage child abuse, often in detail.
The Anarchist Cookbook– even if many of the recipes/tutorials don’t work, you certainly don’t want teenagers trying them. Same for other less popular “here’s how to make bombs and drugs” type of books.
Lolita for being from the perspective of a pedophile.
American Psycho for gore.
The Peaceful Pill Handbook for providing instructions on suicide.
Fifty Shades of Grey, for erotica.
(I don’t think any of these should be illegal, but I do think some of them probably shouldn’t be on the shelves of a school library either)
Are you talking about ALA’s Top 100 list?
I haven’t read 13 Reasons Why, but my understanding is that people want it banned because it might make suicidal teens more likely to act on their suicidal ideation. That seems more of a legitimate reason to ban a book in schools than concern about featuring lgbtq characters or profanity. But I personally wouldn’t advocate for banning a book I haven’t even read.