Banned Book Week

From our dear friends at Better World Books, who truly make a better world by selling and donating unwanted books: 

It’s Banned Books Week, a time to celebrate the freedom to read. As readers, we are thankful to have access to lots of books. (Our warehouses in Indiana and Scotland have around 5 million between them!) The American Library Association keeps an eye on books that are challenged in the U.S. for removal from a school curricula or a library, or even banned. Here are their top 10 books that have been challenged or banned in the US in 2012—you might be surprised at what titles made the list! - 

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.

Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.

Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

3. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.

Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group

4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.

Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.

Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group

6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.

Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green.

Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz.

Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence

9. The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls

Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

10. Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence