To celebrate Banned Books Week 2020, the American Library Association (ALA) just released their Top 100 Banned and Challenged Books from 2010 to 2019. This list not only “draws attention to literary censorship” in libraries and schools but also provides an overview of book challenges over the past 10 years. Below, I’m rounding up the top 10 most surprising banned books on the list.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, this short novel has generated mixed reactions from readers and critics, alike. It is also considered the first Southern work in a tradition that would continue with the modern works of William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. I first encountered The Awakening in an undergraduate Women’s Fiction class, and instantly fell in love. It was one of the works that first sparked my passion for feminism and women’s issues that continue to this day. If you like Kate Chopin, definitely check out the Quick Jambalaya I made inspired by her short story “The Lillies.”
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Angelou uses her first autobiography to discuss incredibly difficult subjects such as identity, rape, racism, and literacy. She also explores the way women live, work, and survive in a male-dominated society. I first read this autobiography in high school (for fun no less), and I absolutely loved it. I can’t say it was the easiest thing to read in terms of its content, but nothing good worth getting is easy, right? I’ve used the hard lessons the author learned in my own life as a woman in America, and I find myself continually drawn back to Angelou’s words.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Although it is widely taught in schools in the United States because of its lessons on tolerance, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms and is often challenged for its use of racial epithets. Despite all of this, in 2006 British librarians ranked the book as one “every adult should read before they die,” outranking the Bible.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Set against the fall of Afghanistan’s monarchy through the Soviet military intervention, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime, The Kite Runner is a father-son relationship story. Themes of guilt and redemption feature prominently in the novel, including an act of sexual assault early in the story.
I first encountered The Kite Runner during my freshman seminar course at Penn State, and I honestly hated it. I think I initially had a bad reaction to it because the course I read it for was terrible and the discussion of the book in the seminar was…interesting. I have since listened to the audiobook and have really started to like the story and would highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t already!
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Seen as a landmark dystopian YA novel, The Hunger Games features a post-revolution society in which 2 teens from each district battle to the death each year. My most memorable experience with The Hunger Games is definitely the class I co-taught at Penn State Abington with one of my old professors while I was attending graduate school. We looked at several dystopian, fantasy, and ancient stories to show how universal the hero myth is throughout literature. It was quite an interesting course to teach and I think reading The Hunger Games, and watching the movie, was truly the highlight for many of my students.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
I first read The Handmaid’s Tale when I was working at a cheese shop and was super bored by the lack of customers in the evenings. It explores themes of subjugated women in a patriarchal society and the various means by which these women resist and attempt to gain individuality and independence. Set in a dystopian society, none of the women are able to have children any longer. Each family is assigned a handmaiden who gets pregnant and gives the child to their assigned family. The Handmaid’s Tale has since been expanded and turned into a television series on Hulu which was met with critical acclaim.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Set in Lorain, Ohio, the author’s hometown, The Bluest Eye tells the story of a young African-American girl growing up in the years following the Great Depression. She is constantly told that her dark skin is ugly and she develops an obsession with blue eyes and equates blue eyes with perfect beauty and “whiteness.” The point of view of the novel switches between various perspectives of Claudia MacTeer, the daughter of Pecola’s foster parents, at different stages in her life. The book’s controversial topics of racism, incest, and child molestation have led to numerous attempts to ban the novel from schools and libraries.
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
The novel’s protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for male, teenage rebellion. The novel also deals with complex issues of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression. While I don’t really think any book should be banned, I really hate The Catcher in the Rye and I have no idea why people still turn to it as a modern “masterpiece.” The ideals of Caulfield are the epitome of the patriarchy and its feelings towards female sexuality, freedom, and equality. This is one you definitely need to skip.
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Set in a society that appears utopian, The Giver follows a 12-year-old boy named Jonas. The elders of the society have taken away pain and strife by converting to “Sameness,” a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of Receiver of Memory, the person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness, as there may be times where one must draw upon the wisdom gained from history to aid the community’s decision making. Jonas struggles with concepts of all the new emotions and things introduced to him: whether they are inherently good, evil, or in between, and whether it is even possible to have one without the other.
The Giver was made into a pretty decent movie in 2014; if you don’t check out the book, definitely give the movie a watch instead!
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Diary of a Young Girl, also known as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the family’s only known survivor, just after the war was over. The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages. The book is included in several lists of the top books of the 20th century.
I think this pivotal book should be required reading for everyone in the world, but especially those who seek to erase the differences between us and those who hate people with different religions from their own.
The most surprising thing I noticed while reading the list of the Top 100 Banned and Challenged Books from 2010 to 2019 was how many authors of color and female authors were featured. This cannot be a coincidence since these are the voices that people so often seek to quash and silence. All books deserve a place in our collective consciousness, even if they present challenging themes or topics that some would rather not read about.
What’s your favorite banned book? What are your top 10 surprising banned books from the ALA’s list?
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