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Banned books of 2021

Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2021

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2021. Of the 1597 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books:

  1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images
  2. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  3. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  4. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda
  6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references and use of a derogatory term
  7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
    Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women
  8. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit
  9. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, relocated, and restricted for providing sexual education and LGBTQIA+ content.
  10. Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit. 

Source Ala.org

 
15 Comments

Posted by on August 14, 2022 in Uncategorized

 

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Changing the original text of old books?

Changing the original text of old books?

Today is the 80th anniversary of the beloved author Enid Blyton. It has been celebrated by a grotesque cover of her work, and the interior has been changed, her words censored, not only do the readers get a different angle on what the story is, the words are not the same. What is the point of reading an older author’s work if things are changed? Enid would be spinning in her grave if she knew all her arduous work had been defiled. 

Here are some comments from Facebook….

Jan MullberryI thought this was a good deal until I remembered text had been changed. And then I look at the covers.  They don’t represent kids of today or of yesterday like the originals. They represent cartoon characters. As a child, I’d look at those covers, and I had a picture in my head of boys and girls like me. How can you do that with these? You are supposed to be reading about real people, that’s what attracts kids or teenagers. How can you find common ground with cartoon characters? As for the supposedly offensive terms and names used, when I was a child, their names were just names, like my friends. There was no hidden agenda. Just like terms used. I was interested in the story and read it as fast as I could. I wasn’t questioning or picking fault with what was written. Kids don’t do that unless they’ve been brought up to not experience a real childhood. It seems to me these decisions have been made by stiff adults that have probably never immersed themselves in that world. Enid wrote such great books because she was part of that world. I honestly don’t think she’d agree with the changes. Because people that have passed will be looking down and thinking what a mad snowflake world, we live in. It’s a shame something so innocent has now been tainted and put in the same category as slave master statues. Shame on the decision-makers. And if you think names like Dick and Fanny are offensive then that says more about you than the kids that wouldn’t bat an eyelid, like I didn’t. Go woke, go broke as they say. I haven’t turned into a racist either, quite the opposite. 

A very well put argument I should say… Thanks jan. 

Also, a most excellent article here… https://returntokirrincom.wordpress.com/blyton-in-a-woke-era/?fbclid=IwAR3E8kB6fwV-8Pr5N4GLfNERWXX-OeDf5M8sRPKfTwSDYtTTJstLO_Iu80Q

Soon books will be banned, literature censored!  As this man puts it perfectly, via the New York times 

Re “Politics Fuels Surge in Calls for Book Bans” (front page, Jan. 31):I am amazed that all of the people in a frenzy to ban books have overlooked a book that is in most public libraries, and features fratricide, incest, adultery, murder, drunkenness, slavery, bestiality, baby killing, torture, parents killing their own children, and soldiers slaughtering defenseless women and children. It’s almost guaranteed to give children, and even adults, nightmares. If you haven’t guessed by now, it’s called the Bible.

Steve Fox
Columbia, Md.

We should not tamper with literature than has been written, we should never ban books, we should learn from them.  We are not stupid and we have no need to be molly coddled by these types who wish us to read what they want us to read. 

I say read them, and then read some more. 

Viva Le BOOKS!!!

 
22 Comments

Posted by on August 11, 2022 in Uncategorized

 

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