Banned Books Week 2021

So-called “banned books” can come in several types. However, they are not actually banned.

The first is simply that schools don’t carry them in their libraries for whatever reason.

The next type is similar, and is the type people occasionally will protest, and that is books a library might choose not to carry.

Both types can still be published and purchased.

Another type, much closer to actually being banned, would be those a publisher is forbidden to publish. One case was in 1999 when the publisher Paladin Press came to a settlement in a lawsuit that banned them from publishing certain books they sold, such as those on explosives. Other publishers could still publish similar books, and people who owned copies could keep, sell, trade, etc. the copies they owned, but the publisher was not allowed to publish and distribute these books.

Sometimes a store won’t allow a book to be sold or ordered.

Before a book can be “banned”, it first is challenged. A book challenge occurs when someone attempts to remove or restrict a piece of literature based on various objections. The book doesn’t become “banned” until it is removed from a curriculum or library. This means that free access to the book is no longer available in the designated institution, or in more extreme cases, prohibited by law.

Below is a list of the most “banned” books:

1. Ulysses, by James Joyce (1922)
2. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (1932)
3. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck (1937)
4. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (1960)
6. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
7. The Chocolate War, by Justin Richardson (1974)
8. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson (1977)
9. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman (1995)
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (1999)
11. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (2003)
12. Looking for Alaska, by John Green (2005)
13. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher (2007)
14. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (2008)

In America, according to the American Library Association, Harry Potter is the most banned book in the United States and has also been banned from private schools in the UAE, and largely criticized by the Iranian government’s press.