So as many of you know, last week was Banned Books Week and so I decided to fully finish off the week, today’s top ten would be the the Top Ten Best #BannedBooks I’ve Read and a couple are surprising that they are banned books. In fact, one of them just recently became a banned book in Riverside Unified School District middle schools in California within the last couple of weeks. If you know which book I’m talking about leave me a comment below saying the name of the book, the author’s name and your twitter handle, blog or Facebook. The first to tell me will get their twitter handle, blog or Facebook page tweeted on Avid Reader’s Twitter! Also don’t forget: tomorrow is Writing Wednesday! For more information on how to participate and join in on the fun, click here! Now here are my top ten #BannedBooks with the added bonus of when they were first banned (or challenged) and why they were banned if possible. Enjoy!

1) the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. 2004. Reasons: anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, violence

2) The Hunger Games series, by Suzanne Collins. 2010. Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

3) Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. 2013. It was “challenge(d) by the chairman of the Anoka-Hennepin, Minn.
School Board (2013) because parents of a student objected to the book’s content, citing its use of profanity and its treatment of sexuality.”

4) The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. 2014. “One parent, Karen Krueger, made the case against young people reading a book on death, illness and sex, saying, “I just didn’t think it was appropriate for an 11-, 12-, 13-year-old to read. I was really shocked it was in a middle school.” Other committee members worried that tweens would struggle with the book’s themes of mortality.”

5) The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown*. 2004. In Lebanon “because of its depiction of Christ marrying Mary Magdalene and fathering a child.”

6) Alice series (I never read all of them though), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. 2001. Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

7) Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. 2012. Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group

8) To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. 2009. Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group

9) Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson. 2002. Reasons: occult/Satanism, offensive language, violence

10) Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey**. 2002. Reasons: offensive language, unsuited to age group

Well that’s it for today folks. Hope you liked that one. Now I want you to not only answer my little trivia question in the first paragraph but also  these questions: what is your fav. #BannedBook that you’ve read and what did you read last week during Banned Book Week? Well that’s it! All the resources where I found the book banning dates and reasons are below. Thanks, don’t forget to answer the questions, have a great day/night and tata for now!

*Angels and Demons, also by Dan Brown, is on the Banned Books list according to Goodreads but the year it was banned and the reason couldn’t be found.

**I had to add this one in here. I used to read these when I was way younger, finishing them in ten minutes and I’m laughing at the fact that they were even considered a book to be banned.

Resources:

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3663344.stm
•  http://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/
• http://www.ila.org/BannedBooks/BBW_2012-2013_Shortlist.pdf
• http://www.ila.org/BannedBooks/ALA016%20Short%20List%20L3c_low%20(1).pdf
• http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
• http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/banned/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/free_downloads/2010banned.pdf