The Banned Book Project

Seeing as I’ve already read the entire Harry Potter series (more than once), I thought I’d make up for missing Banned Books Week this year (2011) by working my way through the 2010-2011 Challenged/Banned Books List and creating a bit of a long-term project for it. Along the way I thought I’d posted a brief summary of the challenges to each book as well as a review of my own. I’ll be using this as the official “The Banned Book Project” page in order to help you follow along with the added bonus that I’ll be better organized as well. Win-win, right?

So, what’s on the list?

1. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
2. “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson
3. “The Flamingo Rising” by Larry Baker
4. “The Notebook Girls:  Four Friends, One Diary, Real Life” by Julia Baskin, Lindsey Newman, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen, and Courtney Toombs
5. “Forever in Blue, the Fourth Summer of Sisterhood” by Ann Brashares
6. “Running with Scissors” by Augusten, Burroughs
7. “My Mom’s Having a Baby” by Dori Hillestad Butler (on request from the library)
8. “Betrayed” by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
9. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen, Chbosky
10. “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin
11. “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
12. “Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes” by Christ Crutcher
13. “Nicken and Dimed: On (Not) Getting Bay in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich
14. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran
15. “Anne Frank:  The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank
16. “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen (The kids and I listened to parts of this one on “Chapter A Day” from Wisconsin Public Radio)
17. “Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson
18. “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon
19. “The Dead Man in Indian Creek” by Mary Downing Hahn
20. “Get Well Soon” by Julie Halpern
21. “Snakehead” by Anthony Horowitz
22. “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
23. “Stolen Children” by Peg Kehret
24. “The Koran“ This one’s a “maybe later,” see here.
25. “Great Soul:  Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India” by Joseph Lelveld
26. “Vegan Virgin Valentine” by Carolyn Mackler
27. “What’s Happening to My Body?  Book for Boys:  A Growing-up Guide for Parents and Sons” by Lynda Madaras and Dane Saavedra - Skipping this one, see here.
28. “Kaffir Boy:  The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa” by Mark Mathabane
29. “Shooting Star” by Fredrick McKissack, Jr.
30. “Writers’ Voice:  Selected from Borrowed Time:  An Aids Memoir” by Paul Monette
31. “Tweaked:  A Crystal Meth Memoir” by Patrick Moore
32. “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison
33. “ttyl” by Laruen Myracle
34. “Twenty Boy Summer” by Sarah Ockler
35. “The Body of Christopher Creed” by Carol Plum-Ucci
36. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
37. “Push” by Sapphire (Ramona Lofton)
38. “Pit Bulls and Tenacious Guard Dogs“ by Carl Semencic – Skipping this one, see here.
39. “We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives” by Paul Shaffer
40. “The Heroin Diaries:  A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star” by Nikki Sixx
41. “Bone” by Jeff Smith
42. “One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies” by Sonya Sones
43. “Revolutionary Voices:  A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology” by Amy Sonnie, ed.
44. “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
45. “Jubilee” by Margaret Walker
46. “Paint Me LIke I Am:  Teen Poems” from WritersCorps