{"id":2661,"date":"2013-09-23T14:26:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T18:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=2661"},"modified":"2013-09-23T21:08:37","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T01:08:37","slug":"banned-books-week-americas-top-ten-countdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/banned-books-week-americas-top-ten-countdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books Week: America’s Top Ten Countdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hey, it’s Banned Books Week! \u00a0The news is out now from ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom– the top ten banned and challenged titles for the year! And we’re counting them down here, just like Casey Kasem!<\/p>\n

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Thank you, Casey Kasem, for counting them down with us!<\/p><\/div>\n

At number 10<\/strong>, Beloved<\/em> by Toni Morrison took the place of To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em> by Harper Lee. \u00a0Both titles are often challenged, and have appeared on and off the top ten list over the last several years.<\/p>\n

At number 9,<\/strong> newcomer The Glass Castle<\/em> by Jeanette Walls took the place of The Gossip Girls<\/em> series by Cecily von Ziegesar, a series that has been in and out of the top 10 over the last ten years.<\/p>\n

At number 8<\/strong>, Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark<\/em>, a favorite here that’s no stranger to challenges (last seen on the top ten list in 2008), jumped back into the top ten, displacing What My Mother Doesn’t Know<\/em> by Sonya Sones, which also made the top ten in 2010 and 2011.<\/p>\n

At number 7, <\/strong>newcomer Looking for Alaska<\/em> by John Green displaced Brave New World<\/em> \u00a0by Aldous Huxley. Brave New World<\/em> had been in the top ten since 2010.<\/p>\n

At number 6<\/strong>, The Kite Runner<\/em> by Khaled Hosseini, which also made the list in 2008, took the place of the Alice<\/em> series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, \u00a0which has made the list three times in the past ten years.<\/p>\n

At number 5<\/strong>, \u00a0the heartwarming story of a penguin family, And Tango Makes Three<\/em> by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, moved The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian<\/em> by Sherman Alexie… but we haven’t seen the end of that, so stay with me! As a side note, And Tango Makes Three<\/em> has been number one four times and number 2 once in the past ten years already. Those penguins are alarming folk, apparently.<\/p>\n

At number 4<\/strong>, the controversial erotica title Fifty Shades of Grey<\/em> by E.L. James, overshadowed My Mom’s Having a Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy<\/em> by Dori Hillestand Butler.<\/p>\n

At number 3<\/strong>, Thirteen Reasons Why<\/em> by Jay Asher displaced… The Hunger Games<\/em> trilogy. Yes, really. With all the media attention directed to The Hunger Games,<\/em> I’m kind of surprised those books didn’t make the top ten.<\/p>\n

At number 2<\/strong>, guess what shows up?\u00a0The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/em> by Sherman Alexie actually moved UP the list, displacing The Color of Earth<\/em>, a Korean manga series, entirely.<\/p>\n

And… the number one banned or challenged book in the United States this past year is<\/strong>….. drumroll, please….<\/p>\n

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CAPTAIN\u00a0UNDERPANTS! \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Now, I’m not a fan of potty humor, but really? What does this say about us as a society that the books most objected to in the country are challenged because of poop jokes? \u00a0Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series knocked the series ttyn; ttyl; l8r, g8r<\/em> by Lauren Myracle out of first place. Both series have had frequent appearances, in the top ten, though. That means her books will probably be back.<\/p>\n

Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to have a list like this every year? It’s great to hear how we should all promote literacy and do our best to put books into kids’ hands, to give them ownership. But look at the books in our top ten countdown here. Every one of them is a book a teen or child might read. Some might only read them in school, but some of them are absolutely written for and intended to be set in the hands of the people we want to be growing readers and thinking individuals. So a book makes a few people uneasy. How can we dare to take it away from everyone?<\/p>\n

And that’s the Monster Librarian, counting them down. America’s Top Ten Banned Books. Now go find a copy of one and read it! And find a second one, and give it to a teen or child who otherwise might miss out on some really good reads. Or at least some quality potty humor.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Hey, it’s Banned Books Week! \u00a0The news is out now from ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom– the top ten banned and challenged titles for the year! And we’re counting them down here, just like Casey Kasem! At number 10, Beloved by Toni Morrison took the place of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1244,1660,1675,517,513,1662,520,1680,1661,322,34,579,1677,928,1664,140,1666,1670,1672,1681,168,1669,13,1676,1674,130,1245,340,1668,1678,37,342,1673,1679,1665,329,1671,141,1663,1647,1667],"class_list":["post-2661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alvin-schwartz","tag-americas-top-10","tag-and-tango-makes-three","tag-banned-books","tag-banned-books-week","tag-beloved","tag-brave-new-world","tag-captain-underpants","tag-casey-kasem","tag-censorship","tag-childrens-books","tag-dav-pilkey","tag-dori-hillestad-butler","tag-fifty-shades-of-grey","tag-harper-lee","tag-jay-asher","tag-jeanette-walls","tag-john-green","tag-khaled-hosseini","tag-lauren-myracle","tag-literacy","tag-looking-for-alaska","tag-media-tie-ins","tag-my-moms-having-a-baby","tag-phyllis-reynolds-naylor","tag-reading","tag-scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark","tag-sherman-alexie","tag-sonya-sones","tag-suzanne-collins","tag-teens","tag-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian","tag-the-alice-series","tag-the-color-of-earth","tag-the-glass-castle","tag-the-hunger-games","tag-the-kite-runner","tag-thirteen-reasons-why","tag-to-kill-a-mockingbird","tag-toni-morrison","tag-what-my-mother-doesnt-know"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2661"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions\/2668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}