Banned Books Week: African-American Classics Barred From Classrooms (2024)

FAQs

What is the #1 most banned book of all time? ›

What Is the Most Banned Book in America? For all time, the most frequently banned book is 1984 by George Orwell. (How very Orwellian!) The most banned and challenged book for 2020 was George by Alex Gino.

Some school districts aimed to ban the book from schools because they believed the book has unsuitable topics for children to read about. One major complaints was that the story portrayed talking animals that can communicate and act just like humans.

Her 1977 classic, Song of Solomon, was banned by a Shelby, Michigan, high school in 2009 after parents complained of its profanity, sexual references and violence.

The "Captain Underpants" books are among the American Library Association's list of the top 100 most banned and challenged books from the past decade, due to complaints from parents about violent imagery.

The banning and censoring of the Bible has a long and multifaceted history that continues to this day, and although it is not typically included within popular lists of banned books, it is safe to assert that the Bible is the most banned and censored book in history.

There were concerns over the violence and increasingly dark tone of the later books but most of the censorship attempts were for religious reasons. It was also banned in some Christian schools in the UK.

Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham. Beginning in 1965, it was forbidden to read Green Eggs and Ham in Maoist China because of its “portrayal of early Marxism,” and the ban was not lifted until author Theodor Seuss Geisl's death in 1991.

From the time of its publication in 1947 until 1972, the book was "banned" by the New York Public Library due to the then-head children's librarian Anne Carroll Moore's hatred of the book.

Huckleberry Finn banned immediately after publication

Immediately after publication, the book was banned on the recommendation of public commissioners in Concord, Massachusetts, who described it as racist, coarse, trashy, inelegant, irreligious, obsolete, inaccurate, and mindless.

As The Banned Books Project points out, there have been “different reasons for the book being banned, including religious objections, hom*osexuality, violence, African history, rape, incest, drug abuse, explicit language, and sexual scenes.” The bans and challenges to The Color Purple, as we know, have nothing to do ...

Why did The Bluest Eye get banned? ›

Over the years, Morrison's novel has been one of the most banned and challenged books, according to the American Library Association. Individuals challenge The Bluest Eye for its depiction of sexual abuse and because they claim it is sexually explicit.

The peaco*ck, with its heavy tail that hinders its ability to fly, symbolizes Milkman's inability to fly.

The Wizard of Oz

This may seem an innocent journey, but throughout the twentieth century and across various US states, the book was banned for its strong female characters, use of magic, promotion of socialist values and attribution of human characteristics to animals.

Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham was banned in the People's Republic of China in 1965 for being a “portrayal of early Marxism”. The ban on this book, an act of censorship implemented by the Maoist government, wasn't lifted until 1991.

First, it was banned for the descriptions of the Oompa Loompas being racist. Roald Dahl changed the descriptions in the revised edition of the book. After the revision, the book was locked up in the reference collection of a Colorado librarian's library because “the book espouses a poor philosophy of life”.

Published in 1949, Orwell's infamous novella has commonly been banned for being sexually explicit and being “pro-communist.” The ladder is a debatable critique, as many have also praised 1984 for being anti-communist due to its critiques of Stalinist Russia.

Since 2001, the American Library Association has posed the top ten most frequently challenged books per year on their website. Using the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, ALA has also noted banned and challenged classics. The list is sorted alphabetically by default.

THE English Bible is the bestselling book – but it is also the least read book.