Banned book week is here and is celebrated from September 23-29. What is Banned book week you ask?  Well is emphasizes our freedom to have “expressed ideas that is consider unorthodox or unpopular” in book form.  There have been many books that have been either challenged or banned from readers to  access in schools and public libraries.  Today I was highlight five books from the Frequently Classic books”. I will try to highlight more books from that list as well.

In random order….

1. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (1971)- this book is about a 15 year old girl who has a dependency to drugs only to run away from home and overdoses.

-why was it banned or challenged?: this book is on my most frequently challenged list( it is number one in the high school library challenged book list)due to its wide variety of profanity, sex, rape and drug use.

2.  Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (1959)-  has short but connected passages that focuses on the William Lee a junkie that travels to the US to Mexico using different names and other weird fantasy like places.

-why was it banned or challenged?: This book was actually banned in 1962 in Boston due to its description of child killing and scenes of pedophillia.

3. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)-  meant as a book for adults it has become a cult much read for teens because of its discussions of young adolescent angst and alienation. The main character Holden Caulfield is considered a teenage icon because in the books he deals with tough subjects as finding out who he is, belonging, loss and finding value in the world.

–why was it banned or challenged?:

From 1961-1982 it has been frequently challenged in various high schools and libraries in the US. It was banned Issaquah, Washington for conveying communist themes in the plot. The description I gave about the book is mainly why it’s been so frequently banned and challenged.

4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)- describes the real killings of the Clutter Family in Holocomb, Kansas back in 1966.

-why was it banned or challenged?: this book was banned in Savannah, Georgia when a complaint from a parent cited the book for having too much profanity, sex and violence.

5.One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) by Ken Kesseuy- it’s about a psychiatric hospital in Oregon and the lives of the patients that dwell within it. The narrator focuses on one character named Randle Patrick McMurphy who brings in a rebellious spirit into the ward.

–why was it banned or challenged?: from 1974-1978 the book was banned various public schools for its use of showboating criminal activity, and descriptions of bestiality, huge amounts of violence, death and dismemberment.

Read on Everyone!