James and The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl was censored at Deep Creek Elementary School in Charlotte Harbor, Florida in 1991, at Morton Elementary school library in Brooksville, Florida, and in Stafford County schools in Virginia because it “contains the word “ass” …and contains crude language and encourages children to disobey their parents and other adults.”

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was challenged but retained in the Olathe, KS ninth grade curriculum (2007) despite a parent calling the novel a “worthless, profanity-riddled book” which is “derogatory towards African Americans, women, and the developmentally disabled.”

In 2020, All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely was banned and challenged for profanity and topics that were deemed to be “too much of a sensitive matter right now” in both North and South Carolina.

Sources:

“Banned & Challenged Classics,” American Library Association, March 26, 2013. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics 

Stone, David R. “Success Stories.” Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy, vol. 4, no. 3, 2019, pp. 47-50. ProQuest.

Other reasons books are banned:

• Sex
• Unsuitable to Age Group
• The Occult
• Violence

Back to the Webquest:

• Introduction
• First Amendment
• Background
• Task
• Evaluation