Frequently Challenged Books

The following list contains books that, originally written for either adults or teens, have been frequently challenged in schools and public libraries. A book that has been challenged, has had adults request that schools not teach it in their classes, or that schools and public libraries remove it from their shelves. When a challenge is successful, the book is banned. These books are available at the Wilsonville Library. 

fiction
Non-Fiction

Note: F = Adult fiction                        Y = Young Adult fiction          J = Juvenile fiction CS F = Adult books on tape     CDB F = Adult books on CD
Fiction
	Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, 1992. F The story of four sisters who must adjust to life in America after having to flee from the Dominican Republic.
	Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima, 1991. F In New Mexico on the border between a small village and the huge llano (plains), Antonio is torn betw his father's cowboy side of the family and his mother's village and farming relations.
	Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak, 1999. Y A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.
	(Anonymous). Go Ask Alice, 1971. Y A fifteen-year-old drug user chronicles her daily struggle to escape the pull of the drug world.
	Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale, 1985. Y In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the "morally fit" Wives.
	Block, Francesca Lia. Baby Be-Bop, 1995. Y Dirk MacDonald, a sixteen-year-old boy living in Los Angeles, comes to terms with being gay after he receives surreal storytelling visitations from his dead father and great-grandmother.
	Block, Francesca Lia. I was a Teenage Fairy, 1998. Y A feisty, sexy fairy helps a young girl heal traumas of her past.
	Blume, Judy. Deenie, 1973. J A thirteen-year-old girl seemingly destined for a modeling career finds she has a deformation of the spine called scoliosis.
	Blume, Judy. Forever..., 1975. F Michael is Katherine's first love. How will she survive the summer without him?
	Blume, Judy. Tiger Eyes, 1981. Y Resettled in the "Bomb City" with her mother and brother, Davey Wexler recovers from the shock of her father's death during a holdup of his 7-Eleven store in Atlantic City.
	Burgess, Melvin. Smack, 1998. Y After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move in with a group of squatters in the port city of Bristol and try to find ways to support their growing addiction to heroin.
	Cooney, Caroline. The Face on the Milk Carton, 1990. Y A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity.
	Cooney, Caroline. The Terrorist, 1997. Y Sixteen-year-old Laura, an American living in London, tries to find the person responsible for the death of her younger brother Billy, who has been killed by a terrorist bomb.
	Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War, 1974. Y A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies.
	Cormier, Robert. Fade, 1988. Y Paul Moreaux, the thirteen-year-old son of French Canadian immigrants, inherits the ability to become invisible, but this power soon leads to death and destruction.
	Cormier, Robert. Heroes, 1998. Y Eighteen-year-old Francis Cassavant has returned from World War II an unwilling hero. Although he can still see and hear, a grenade left him faceless. Francis welcomes the anonymity, for he has returned home with a plot for revenge that he values more than his own life.
	Cormier, Robert. I am the Cheese, 1978. Y A young boy desperately tries to unlock his past yet knows he must hide those memories if he is to remain alive.
	Cormier, Robert. We All Fall Down, 1991. Y As The Avenger searches for the teenage boys who trashed a house in his neighborhood, Buddy, one of the trashers, increases his drinking in order to cope with his parents' separation and his obsession with the daughter of the owner of the vandalized house.
	Crutcher, Chris. Athletic Shorts, 1989. CS F, CDB F A collection of short stories featuring characters from earlier books by Chris Crutcher.
	Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, 1993. Y The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other comtemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic cry for help.
	Duncan, Lois. Killing Mr. Griffin, 1979. Y A teenager casually suggests playing a cruel trick on the English teacher, but did he intend it to end with murder?
	Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate, 1992. F The youngest daughter of a well-born rancher, Tita is supposed to remain single and care for her aging mother. When she falls in love, her mother declares that Tita's sister Rosaura must marry in her place. But Tita has one weapon left--her cooking.
	Freymann-Weyr, Garret. My Heartbeat, 2002. Y As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and his best friend, fourteen-year-old Ellen finds her relationship with each of them changing.
	Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Chronicle of a Death Foretold, 1983. F The story of a murder that took place in a Colombian village almost thirty years ago.
	Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1995. F The story of 100 years in the life of Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by his descendants.
	Golding, William. Lord of the Flies, 1954. Y, F A group of English schoolboys are plane-wrecked on a deserted island with no adults. Can they cooperate long enough to survive?
	Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier, 1973. Y Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas.
	Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders, 1967. Y The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.
	Huxley, Alduous. Brave New World, 1946. F Though there is no violence and everyone is provided for in a utopian World State, Bernard Marx feels something is missing.
	Jenkins, A.M. Breaking Boxes, 1997. Y When in the course of an unusual friendship Charlie reveals something confidential about his brother, he must decide if he can accept the risks of caring.
	Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, 1976. F Cowed by sadistic Nurse Ratched, the inmates of a mental hospital are galvanized by a new patient, the free-spirited McMurphy, who enters a pitched battle of wills with the nurse.
	Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon, 1966. F Mentally retarded Charlie eagerly volunteers as the first human subject in an experiment to improve intelligence, but finds out that getting smarter isn't the answer to all of his problems.
	King, Stephen. Carrie, 1974. F Carrie White, menaced by bullies at school and her mother at home, gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers, powers that will eventually be turned on her tormentors.
	King, Stephen. Cujo, 1982. F An amiable St. Bernard is infected by a brain-destroying virus that makes it into a monster.
	King, Stephen. The Dead Zone, 1979. F An unassuming high school teacher blacks out for five years. He wakes up with a "dead zone" in his brain. The zone gives him headaches, but also grants him second sight, a talent he doesn't want and is reluctant to use. Will he use that talent to alter the course of history?
	Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960. Y, F Jem and his sister Scout don't pay much attention to the black man accused of raping a white woman. That changes when their father, Atticus, becomes the man's lawyer.
	L'Engle, Madeline. A Wrinkle in Time, 1962. Y, J Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
	Llywelyn, Morgan. Druids, 1991. F Ainvar, Chief Druid of the Sacred Grove in Gaul, narrates the story of young chief Vercingetorix's attempt to unify the Celts and defeat Julius Caesar and the invading Romans.
	Lowry, Lois. The Giver, 1993. Y, J Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
	Morrisson, Toni. The Bluest Eye, 1970. F 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove's entire family is ugly, but that's the least of her problems.
	Morrisson, Toni. Song of Solomon, 1977. F The story of Milkman Dead, who tries to resolve the differing memories of his parents and his mysterious aunt Pilate, while working through a difficult relationship with his lifelong friend, Guitar.
	Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels, 1988. Y Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
	Naylor, Phyllis. Alice (series). Y, J
	Pressfield, Steven. Gates of Fire, 1998. F An epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae.
	Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men, 1965. F Lennie is big and strong but mentally retarded. George is smaller and smarter. The two travel and work together as farm laborers in California. Can they really reach their goal -- to have a farm of their own?
	Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter (series). J, SF
	Sachar, Louis. The Boy Who Lost His Face, 1989. Y David receives a curse from an elderly woman he has helped his schoolmates attack, and he learns to regret his weakness in pandering to others for the sake of popularity before new friends and a very nice girl help him to be a stronger, more assertive person.
	Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye, 1951. F, Y Holden Caulfield narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school.
	Thomas, Rob. Slave Day, 1997. Y Relates the events of a southern high school's "Slave Day" auction and fund raiser, which leads students, teachers, and even community members to rethink their approaches to their lives.
	Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884. F He has no mother, his father is a drunkard, and he sleeps in a barrel. He's a liar, a thief, and a rebel against respectability. But when Huck meets a runaway slave named Jim, his life changes forever.
	Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1875. J, F Mark Twain's classic yarn about an orphan growing up on the Mississippi.
	Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five, 1969. F Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens and relives his experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
	Wright, Richard. Native Son, 1940. F As a young black man in the Chicago of the '30s, Bigger Thomas has no way out of the walls of poverty and racism that surround him, and after he murders a young white woman in a moment of panic, these walls begin to close in.
	Zindel, Paul. The Pigman, 1983. Y A teenage boy and girl, high school sophomores from unhappy homes, tell of their bizarre relationship with an old man.
Non-Fiction
	Allende, Isabel. Paula, 1994. 921 ALLENDE
	Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969. 921 ANGELOU
	Locker, Sari. Sari Says: The Real Dirt on Everything from Sex to School, 2001. Y 305.236 LOCKER
	Madaras, Lynda. The What's Happening to My Body? Book for Boys: The New Growing Up Guide for Parents and Sons, 2000. Y 155.523 MADARAS
	Madaras, Lynda. The What's Happening to My Body? Book for Girls: The Growing Up Guide for Parents and Daughters, 2000. Y 155.533 MADARAS
	Pomeroy, Wardell. Boys and Sex, 1991. 155.525 POMEROY
	Rodriguez, Luis. Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., 1993. Y 364.363 RODRIGUEZ
	Sebold, Alice. Lucky, 1999. 364.1428 SEBOLD

 

Last updated on May 2, 2005.

This list was compiled using the American Library Association's 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990 - 2000 and the Parents Against Bad Books in Schools book lists.