Banned Books

I know I promised to post my Devil's Lake pictures today, but I an inflamed and must post something else. I stumbled upon a list of the most challenged books in America from 1990-2000 at Malissa's site. I've known of this list before, but I've never really read through it. Today I did, and I am appalled.

THE LIST:

• Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
  
• Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
  
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
  
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  
• Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
  
• Forever by Judy Blume
  
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
  
• Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
  
• Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
  
• My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
  
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
  
• It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
  
• Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
  
• A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
  
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  
• Sex by Madonna
  
• Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
  
• The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
  
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
  
• Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
  
• Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
  
• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
  
• The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
  
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
  
• The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
  
• Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
  
• The Goats by Brock Cole
  
• Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
  
• Blubber by Judy Blume
  
• Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
  
• Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
  
• We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
  
• Final Exit by Derek Humphry
  
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  
• Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
  
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  
• What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
  
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
  
• The Pigman by Paul Zindel
  
• Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
  
• Deenie by Judy Blume
  
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  
• Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
  
• The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
  
• Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
  
• A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
  
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  
• Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
  
• Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
  
• Cujo by Stephen King
  
• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
  
• The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
  
• Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
  
• Ordinary People by Judith Guest
  
• American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
  
• What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
  
• Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
  
• Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
  
• Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
  
• Fade by Robert Cormier
  
• Guess What? by Mem Fox
  
• The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
  
• The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
  
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  
• Native Son by Richard Wright
  
• Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
  
• Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
  
• Jack by A.M. Homes
  
• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
  
• Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
  
• Carrie by Stephen King
  
• Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
  
• On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
  
• Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
  
• Family Secrets by Norma Klein
  
• Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
  
• The Dead Zone by Stephen King
  
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
  
• Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
  
• Private Parts by Howard Stern
  
• Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
  
• Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
  
• Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
  
• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
  
• Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
  
• Sex Education by Jenny Davis
  
• The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
  
• Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
  
• How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
  
• View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
  
• The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
  
• The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
  
• Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

I followed Malissa's lead and put the books I've read in bold. Not only have I read those, but many of them I consider to be among the greatest books ever written. They're the books that I kept when I donated my childhood books to a poor elementary school library. I mean, these are books that truly and deeply moved me. I cried, I stayed up all night pondering, I laughed. Why would people try to take away something that beautiful?

*sigh* I am sad.