Wednesday night, the Randolph County School Board reversed its ban on Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, just nine days after they had removed the book from school library shelves. The vote was six to one. Only board member Gary Mason deemed the book “not appropriate for young teenagers,†according to David Zucchino of the Los Angeles Times.
School board relents: Invisible Man is “vulgar,” but it’s back on the shelves | MobyLives.
[1984 by George Orwell] has been banned at various schools throughout the U.S. for being both anti-government and too communist. Oh, and it’s considered too “gloomy and depressing” for children to read at school
The Millions – Google+ – #georgeorwell1984  has been banned at various schools….
There were 464 challenges, as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association, in 2012.
This book was #2 on the list:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
Just so you know.
Frequently challenged books of the 21st century | ala.org/bbooks.
Some books are meant to bring chills of discomfort, tears built of disappointment, and tension created by problems that will never be solved. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye isn’t a happy book, and that is what makes it honest.
The Millions : Beauty is Truth: The Case Against Banning The Bluest Eye.
Some reflections by Nick Burd, an author whose book had been challenged:
The language of the censor is the language of the tyrant, the absolutist, the one with no vision. It is the antithesis of art because it assumes that there is only one perspective, one reality, and that anything that fails to rhyme with it is a sin against nature. But the real sin against nature is to suffocate personal truths and experiences with wobbly doctrine and to disguise it as morally just. Art— particularly literature—exists to show us there are as many worlds as there are people. Each of these worlds come with its own laws. These laws vary from person to person, but if there is one that they have in common it is to share your truth. We owe it to our humanity and our short time among other humans to respect the truths that are shared with us. – Nick Burd