Banned Books: The World's Most Controversial Books, Past and Present

by D.K. Publishing

Discover the stories behind the most shocking and infamous books ever published.

Censorship of one form or another has existed almost as long as the written word, while definitions of what is "acceptable" in published works have shifted over the centuries, and from culture to culture.

Banned Books explores why some of the world's most important literary classics and seminal non-fiction titles were once deemed too controversial for the public to read--whether for challenging racial or sexual norms, satirizing public figures, or simply being deemed unfit for young readers. From the banning of All Quiet on the Western Front and the repeated suppression of On the Origin of Species, to the uproar provoked by Lady Chatterley's Lover, entries offer a fascinating chronological account of censorship, and the astonishing role that some banned books have played in changing history.

Packed with eye-opening insights into the history of the written word, and the political and social climate during the period of suppression or censorship, this is a must-read for anyone interested in literature, creative writing, politics, history, or law.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, History, Banned Books, Audiobook, Reference, Literature

192 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 2022

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [mental health hiatus]]

**Update April 2023: Today the American Library Association released the 13 most banned/challenged books from 2022:
“Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe
"All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson
"The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
"Flamer" by Mike Curato
"Looking for Alaska" by John Green
"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky
"Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison
"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie
"Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
"A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas
"Crank" by Ellen Hopkins
"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews
"This Book Is Gay" by Juno Dawson
A recent report showed that book challenges and bans have nearly doubled since last year and are the highest ever recorded. New data shows in 2022 there were 1,269 challenges against 2,571 different books (791 challenges against 1,597 books the previous year, 273 in 2020 and 377 in 2019). 90% of all book challenges (reminder a challenge is a call for removal, a ban is actual removal) targeted multiple books with 40% of them targeting over 100 books at once. This has become a highly coordinated attack on intellectual freedoms across the country (see below), showing a change in banning attempts from what once was mostly individuals and single districts to organizations (like hate group Moms For Liberty, who are connected with harassment and violence) demanding sweeping bans even at a state-wide level. As these are only the reported bans, the numbers are certainly much higher. This follows growing reports of harassment against libraries and their staff and massive book removals in Florida where recently the Governor falsely claimed book bans are a hoax. A library in our cooperative was defunded and is in the process of closing (the book ban group funded by current sitting members of my county’s commissioner board) and several libraries have had to close for bomb threats in recent months. So This problem is getting worse and 2023 is already on track to exceed last year, making it all the more urgent to protect libraries and intellectual freedom, and here are some organizations you might want to check out/join/donate to. Nothing short of direct action will stop this and local elections are a key battleground. And now to my original essay on it (figures are from last year):


Buckle up, I’m going on a rant! This week (Sept 18 - 24, 2022) is the American Library Association's annual awareness week about censorship in the United States and a reminder to protect intellectual freedom. It seems all the more dire this year with the ALA reporting that in 2021 there were 791 challenges against 1,597 books, which was almost four times higher than ever seen since they began tracking book challenges in 2000 (273 in 2020 and 377 in 2019 for comparison). Even more alarming is that in just the first half of 2022 there already have been 681 attempts to ban 1,651 different titles in public or school libraries. I think this is an important topic to pay attention to (remember, 82-97% of challanges go unreported) and have been following different challenges across the country for over a year, plus as a bookseller, library employee and just general lover of books, this is a topic that very much concerns and involves me.

For the sake of this piece I am only going to be discussing challenges/bannings that occur in the United States, though this is an issue worldwide I would be happy to discuss at any time, and I would also just like to dive into the issue because I feel that the general understanding of it or reporting on it is stilted and often unhelpful. For starters, I feel the term Banned Books Week is problematic framing whereas Freedom to Read Week is more productive and a better rallying cry to defend intellectual freedoms. Otherwise it leads into a rather romanticized look at it which often becomes rather unhelpful and self-serving. On that note the frquent use of prison imagery—such as books “locked up” for displays—is unhelpful unless it is being used to call attention to the fact that prisons have the largest book bans in the United States, something that goes rather under the radar. So let’s take a look at what is happening, why it is happening and, most importantly, what can you do about it.

First, for sake of clarity, when we talk about a book being challenged, this means that there is an attempt to remove or restrict access to a book. 70% of all challenges involve multiple books. If a book is banned, this means a removal of the material from the shelf. It doesn’t often occur, and in a public library setting you can usually still have access to these books through interlibrary loan, the thing I do all day at work. Now, in the present the overwhelming majority of titles facing challenges are works that center people of color or LGBTQ+ voices. You’ll frequently see social media lists that focus on historically banned books like 1984 or Ulysses, but in the present it is very much targeting queer or Black voices. Here is the list of the 10 most banned or challenged books from 2021:

1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
2. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
3. All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
4. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jessie Andres
8. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
9. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
10. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

This makes for a pretty great reading list, honestly. Which is a great thing to do, especially if you request them through your local library to give them circulation numbers that can be used when defending not removing. On the topic of that, the ALA states that only a librarian can remove a book, so the legislations that have been popping up trying to allow city officials to review and remove books is a gross misunderstanding of how collection development works, and in the case of one Texas city, officials were sued for doing so and admitted in court it was entirely for political reasons. Having a book in a library or as part of a school curriculum legitimizes a book, and much of what these challenges are doing is trying to delegitimize a book even contrary to collection development policies that assess a need for a book within their community (taking into account ILL access in library collectives) and efforts for a balanced collection. It is all about access, which we’ll get into shortly.

Let's look at some of the data released in PEN America's recent report on book bans in school or public libraries from July 2021 to June 2022.

41% of banned titles have LGBTQ+ themes or characters, and 40% because they contain a prominent character of color with 20% of the titles being books that deal with issues of racism. 21% have what is deemed to be sexual content.

Of the books that have been banned, 75% are fiction titles with 49% being YA and 19% picture books. And below is the prevalence of bans by state:


Book banning has made a lot of headlines recently, such as a Tennessee school board banning the holocaust graphic novel The Complete Maus, pastor Greg Locke holding a literal book burning in Tennessee, the Proud Boys protesting books at a Chicago board meeting and threatening students with violence, or the library right next door to me facing doxxing of employees and threats that led to the library losing a milage vote and fearing closure due to a small group claiming having queer books was grooming children (this occured even after the books were placed in restricted access). Book banning is not a popular stance, with 71% of voters opposing it from public libraries and 67% in school libraries, yet it keeps happening. Furthermore less than 1% of all challenges are initiated by students, the people most affected by the bans.

So who are initiating these challenges? They are small but very vocal groups across the US with connection to right wing politics and political funding such as the anti-public-institution group Mom’s for Liberty or the conservative advocacy organization No Left Turn. Both hate groups frequently post lists and ask people to take them to schools and libraries to demand their removal, often leading to awkward situations where the books were never on the shelf to begin with or the challenger quickly revealing that they cannot cite specifics about why the book should be removed (no challenge will or should ever be taken seriously if you haven’t actually read the book). Of the 50 groups PEN America tracked banning books, 73% were created within the past year and exist almost entirely on social media. Right wing organizations have released toolkits for how to challenge books, including The Federalist that once posted an article urging people to ban books but got nearly every detail about library activity, collection development and Banned Book Week hilariously wrong. Many of these groups are well connected with donors, notably those connected with anti-public school groups like orgs tied to Betsy Devos. Most often the banning is a wedge issue that has a larger aim against public institutions and have discovered that these sort of challenges get them a lot of attention. Which is tricky, because we should raise awareness but not feed them the attention and the way we talk about things and the use of responsible rhetoric is key as well as promoting informational and digital literacy.

Which leads to the biggest thing here: the books themselves are mostly props in a larger goal to try and shake confidence in public institutions and defund public libraries and schools. Lets look at a lot of the claims around these challenges, because they don’t hold up under any scrutiny. First is the claim that book challenges are to protect kids. However, it is a specific type of voices (PoC and Queer) that are being targeted and if Othering, silencing and removing access to books about/for one type of kid is how you “protect” another, than you are claiming only certain type of kids deserve protection. Similarly with the whole “not with my taxes” argument, as Queer, Trans and PoC also pay taxes into public institutions and deserve to be represented as well. The biggest tell is that these book removals are targeting libraries and for the most part have left bookstore and publishers alone, and if they truly thought these books were evil they would be at least pretending to stop them at the source. These challenges are and should always be referred to as anti-public education efforts and a coordinated attack on queer children.

Which is the saddest thing, because many of the books that are being targeted are ones I wished existed when I was a teenager. These are people who already are struggling with sense of self and feeling Othered in a very cis, hetero pandering world and books like these can be a lifeline. It is also a reminder that their voice matters too, so silencing voices like these feels like a personal attack saying everyone gets a voice except you. Furthermore, the claim that queer books are grooming children is absurd and inappropriate as well as intentionally missing the point on how sexuality works. Nobody reads these books and decides to be queer, that’s just not how anything works. Sure, I’ve found power in books like this that helped me come to terms with myself, but those thoughts already existed and giving them a chance to be considered was a great thing, and everyone deserves that. Everyone deserves to feel seen and find access to their communities.

What to do
Access is key. When removing a book you are restricting access. The irony that people saying they don’t want their taxes going to a book on the shelf is that they already did and removing it is costing more and also now whenever someone wants a copy of that book they are pushing the work off onto another library to retrieve it and send it, while still having their local library perform the labor of placing it on a hold shelf. While well-intentioned people come up with ideas of donating books or making banned books little libraries, this is actually not that helpful. The point is unrestricted access for ALL, not just those in your neighborhood, and collection development teams are already overworked trying to get books on the shelves. Donated books rarely make it to the shelf anyways. If you want to help, take the money you would have used buying a stack of banned books to donate and send it to groups fighting against book challenges such as PEN America or Bookstoprisoners.net that help get books to those in the most restricted places: prisons. But returning to access, part of the larger goal of dissolving public institutions is to replace them with similar privatized version that can and certainly will restrict access at will, picking and choosing who gets education, books they want, etc. and almost certainly spending a lot of effort on gatekeeping. A cursory glance at history will tell you all you need to know about who gets in and who doesn’t. Moms for Liberty, who is also partnering with Ron DeSantis and Betsy DeVos to place members on school boards in Florida, recently said book bans aren’t bad because you can still buy the book. The logic is that information access should have price barriers and not be available to the public at will.

What else can you do? Well, a lot. First, pay attention to local elections and vote for people who don’t have a goal to defund public libraries or schools. Show up to board meetings and defend intellectual freedom, these are rarely well attended and just a small vocal minority can do a lot of damage when unopposed. Write to your local paper about the importance of intellectual freedom. Most importantly, use and support your local library. Request queer books to show there is a need in the community or donate time and money to help. Review and recommend banned books on social media, like this very website here. Books are for everyone, and a small group of people should not be removing access to books from people who need them. If you don’t like a book, don’t check it out, but don’t stop others from doing so.

Thank you for your time.

[Tim Null · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reporting in the Denver Post
August 15, 2024
The Elizabeth School District in Elbert County Colorado is pulling 19 books from their school library shelves for parental review because these books are deemed too controversial. Book list follows.

Banned book list:
• The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas,
• “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher,
• “#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights “by Rebecca Felix,
• “You Should See Me in a Crown” by Leah Johnson,
• “It’s Your World — If You Don’t Like It, Change It: Activism for Teenagers” by Mikki Halpin,
• “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini,
• “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison,
• “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky,
• “Looking for Alaska” by John Green,
• “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult,
• “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson,
• “Identical,” “Fallout,” “Glass,” “Burned,” “Crank,” and “Smoke” by Ellen Hopkins, and
• “George” by Alex Gino   .

https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/15...

#### ###
Banned Books will serve as a resource for the Book Banning Series.

The purpose of the Book Banning and Censorship Series is to protest the banning and censorship of books and the defunding of libraries.

If you would like to suggest a book for the Banned Book Series and/or volunteer to review a book, please either leave a comment or message me.

If you have written a review of a banned book, feel free to post a link to your review in a comment.

The series will focus on books that have been banned, burned, or challenged. It will also feature books that discuss the banning and burning of books. In addition, this series will include books about ostracized groups since banned books are frequently written in support of those groups. This series might even include some groups who mistakenly believe they are ostracized.



BANNED BOOK LIST
[Listed in the order they were reviewed]
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (reviews by Null and Berengaria)
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (review by Simon Harrison)
Another Country by James Baldwin (reviews by Null and TTBrader)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (reviews by Null, Berengaria, and TTBrader)
Children of the Alley AKA Children of Gebelawi by Naguib Mahfouz (review by Tawfek)
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis (review by Berengaria)
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (review by Cheryl Carey)

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Everybody has the right to form their own opinion and read what they like and come to their own conclusion about it … I trust the reader.”
Philip Pullman, 2007

An interesting debate in Twitterverse has seen people arguing that simply removing a book from a school library, or restricting access to it in some form or other, is not book banning per se. They argue that people (invariably meaning woke, liberal or left-leaning people) are getting hot under the collar over people simply exercising a fundamental democratic right.

First of all, it strikes me as a bit of a semantic distinction, and secondly, there is so much happening in the US right now that book banning (or restriction, if you will) seems part of a larger conservative backlash.

As a resident of a country with a sordid history of book banning, we do get a mention here, as South Africa’s Films and Publications Act of 1965 apparently racked up an astonishing 13 000 banned titles in the late 1960s.

I am not sure if this number is accurate, but I can personally attest to an issue of Living and Loving magazine being banned in my youth due to an innocuous breast-feeding article. (How the Act worked was that all any citizen had to do was object, and the offending title was immediately ordered to be removed. Kind of setting the stable alight after the horse had bolted, but anyway.)

The current wave of book banning in the US seems focused on restricting gay and trans rights in particular, with Republicans convinced that drag queens are out to get their children. It was a surreal experience to watch the Reunion episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race S15 recently and see RuPaul implore people to donate to the ACLU Support the Drag Defense Fund. Well, Bette Midler did warn everyone after Roe vs. Wade was overturned when she Tweeted: ‘Get ready, gays. Your’re next’.

Restricting minority rights is not exclusive to the US, of course: Uganda has just passed a new bill where simply identifying as gay can get you life imprisonment, or the death penalty in certain cases. It is the harshest legislation of its kind in Africa, which says a lot about the continent’s backwards slide into conservatism.

Anyway, ‘Banned Books’ by DK Publishing is a timely reminder of how many great books and authors have been banned throughout history, and why. Fortunately, I have read many of these, but I was quite amazed to learn about some of the bannings and the reasoning behind them. I see there are a number of ‘banned books’ lists on GR, and I for one will definitely make a point of reading some of the newer contested titles.

Who would have thought we’d end up living in a time where reading is a political act? What the book banners have inadvertently reminded everyone is that books are truly powerful, and that the voices of diverse authors cannot be silenced. It is up to us readers to make sure that we continue to spread the gospel of tolerance, peace, love, freedom of expression and justice. All those great qualities that the rest of the world once looked up to the US for.

[La Crosse County Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update on the Jamestown Township library: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-wa...

See also: Fantastic resources from the American Library Association (ALA) related to book banning, censorship, and intellectual freedom

I think I was drawn to this book because of just all the news lately about worrying trends in book bans nationwide. (Although, this is an issue worldwide as well!)



I was sad to see a story in the headlines recently about a small-town library in Michigan (Jamestown Township, MI) potentially having to close because fiscal year funding for its operation was voted down.

This got me thinking about books even more than usual, about what censorship and restricting access can to do a community. On a personal note, as a child, libraries were always my sanctuary, wherever I went. I can't imagine not having had libraries growing up.



Banned Books: The World’s Most Controversial Books, Past and Present is an accessible, illustrated handbook to books that have been banned for one reason or another from classical fiction to contemporary fiction and nonfiction.

Divided into different historical eras, each book features an image of its cover and an explanation as to why the book was banned or contested in its time.

Its central message, encapsulated in the introduction, is that censorship tends to do more harm than good. Part of learning is critical thinking, in which one considers all the views on a subject and comes to an informed position. This is hard to do when books are banned or restricted.



Not to mention, an informed electorate is crucial for any democratic system of government!

My experience of working in a library and seeing diverse groups of people come through on any given day is that books are critical not only for the accumulation of knowledge (you know, occupational or school learning, or just for curiosity), but for seeing each other (that is, people of other backgrounds/experiences) and seeing yourself.



I think this is especially true for marginalized groups, such as women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals. Content geared for these groups are seeming to come under increased scrutiny, for ideological, political, or religious reasons.



The problem is if people don’t see books representing their lived experience on the shelves or in a digital resource collection, that just helps to further marginalize and Other them. (Okay, I’ll step down from my soapbox now.)

While I wished that some of the history was fleshed out a bit more, Banned Books not only gives an important primer on the history of banning books and censorship, but a new reading list for its readers! It’s a great, quick read for a general audience.



Happy reading!



-Cora

Find this book and other titles within our catalog.

See also: Fantastic resources from the American Library Association (ALA) related to book banning, censorship, and intellectual freedom

ALA's 2022 State of America's Libraries Report
From the report:

Credit: ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom

[Jessaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several years ago I bought a used book titled, mine comf by Adolf Hitler. Then I wrote a review of it on here. I did not wish to have the book in my house. I thought of many things to do with it. I could take it to the library and give it to them or take it to a thrift store, And then someone would pick it up and read it and they would become a Nazi. Maybe. And then I would feel guilty, because I believe that we are all our brothers keepers. So, I threw it in our garbage can and it was soaked with all the leftover foods that! We did not eat. Well, not leftover but food that was unedible. By now it was rotten. Just as this book was. I think I did the right thing. I know I did the right thing.

[Dona's Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found BANNED BOOKS by D.K. Publishing on the Libby app. Check for your local library on the app and read great books for free!📚

This is a text meant more for entertaining than educating, with some great images of beautiful old book covers. It includes brief discussion of the history of book banning and challenging mostly at various levels of U.S. government. I wanted a more complete list of banned books from this resource. If you're curious about which books have been banned over time, or a history of banning itself, you could find much better texts than this if you dig. To start with try reading the excellent essay in the first review comment listed for this book, by S. Research doesn't really get better than that!

Rating: 📕📕📕 / 5 banned books
Recommend? sure, for an overview
Finished: April 1 2023
Read this if you like:
🛋 Coffee table books
📚 Bookish books
🕰 History books

[Einzige · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Pretty coffee table book but not much more, light on content but good on graphic design. As for the books chosen for inclusion it plays it very safe, almost all the books are those banned* on obscenity grounds and all but 3 of the rest are on limited political grounds. You won't for instance find modern books whose mere possession is criminal or those that have been removed from Goodreads due to their connections with terrorism and violence. Accordingly, this book doesn't simplify but instead gives false impressions.

*The scope of what constitutes a ban is very broad, many of the bans are simply related to high school libraries in a particular US state and a least one book was included where the ban was just a threat of legal action from a government official.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0⭐ The subtitle is more accurate-"controversial books" rather than "banned books," as some of the works included were never banned at all, merely challenged- usually by American school authorities. Or if they were banned, they didn't stay that way for long.

This is popular history, not serious scholarship-many of the incidents described appear anecdotal; no citations, references or footnotes are included ( not even an index).
Having said that, it's a quick, entertaining read that does present an historical overview of censorship and many interesting factoids about some good books.

In the early days of publishing some of the first books to be banned ran afoul of religious doctrine, a famous example being Galileo's 'Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems' which argued in favour of the heliocentric ( Copernican) solar system. He figured he could pull it off because a friend of his had just been elected Pope. Alas, not. Galileo was forced to recant and his book was placed on the Vatican's infamous "Index" of prohibited titles for the next 300 years.

As the years went along the reasons for banning books grew to include sex- either graphic descriptions of, or the wrong kind of (according to the powers that be); profanity - words somebody didn't like; politics- unflattering or honest depictions of life under various regimes.

I was also introduced to the unfortunate career of one Anthony Comstock, a sanctimonious U.S postal inspector and Christian "morality" crusader, whose definition of obscenity included 'The Decameron', 'The Canterbury Tales,' and anything published by Suffragettes. He boasted that he was responsible for the destruction of 15 tons of books, 4000 arrests and 15 suicides ( this from Wikipedia).

By the mid Twentieth century though, times had changed and most democratic governments had gotten out of the book banning business ( even the Vatican stopped updating the 'Index' in 1966, because there were just too many damn books).

Currently the most active proponents of censorship are authoritarian nations and U.S. school boards ( a strange juxtaposition). The book also describes the rise of soft censorship, through content warnings or regulations requiring parental permission before students can read some titles. What's encouraging however is how often book bans are being overturned by grassroots protests.

Each " banned" book has a short section, illustrated with related line drawings, cover art and/or the author's picture. It's the perfect book for picking up and putting down at your leisure. Two hours read, tops, though.

For a harder read along some of the same lines you might try Fernando Baez's 'A Universal History of the Destruction of Books'. It's not only about censorship ( though that's a major theme) but the physical elimination of literature through war, disaster, insects and yes, book burning.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read. Basically an overview of why certain books were banned. What was found to be objectionable..etc. Also touched on some of the background of the authors.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, there are approximately 88 books listed in this somewhat light collection. No editor or author is named, the introduction is a mere 4 paragraphs and gives no indication of how the books were chosen to feature in the book. Of the books listed, 17 titles relate to books where attempts have been made in various individual schools, states and counties in the USA to ban a book which was available elsewhere in the States and the attempts failed in any event. I am not sure what the purpose of listing books which have never actually successfully been banned is, particularly in a book that is sold internationally and this gives the book a somewhat US centric leaning. There are also mentions of Maurice by E M Forster which was not banned but was withheld from publication by the author until after his death, needless to say the only mention of it actually being banned refers to a single school board in the USA. A Clockwork Orange is also referred to, a book that has not been banned, it was the film that created a furore and it was taken out of circulation, the film that is, by the director Stanley Kubrick, not in itself banned except in small geographical pockets. This is a very shallow book on the banning of books, no real debate is raised and indeed the genuine suffering of some of the authors whose books have been banned by whole nations for political or religious reasons are glossed over somewhat, nevertheless it is nicely illustrated and is an easy introduction into the subject of the history of censorship.

[Maggie Carr]

Can't really rate this one. Just the perfect resource when looking for the jist of the most banned and challenged books. I did like the added content to each passage that references the most recent challenge sightings and why. The perfect book for cramming for Banned Books Week Trivia Night. May listen to it a few more times leading up to the competition 😆.

[Melinda Nankivell]

Difficult to review and rate a book like this, which basically describes why certain books have been challenged over the years across the world. It’ll probably add a few books to your TBR list!

[Janae]

This made me want to read more banned books.

In this volume, a brief description is given of almost 90 books that have been banned, challenged, or censored at some point in time. Likely, everyone has read at least a few books on the list. With titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird, the Harry Potter series, Grimm's Fairy Tails, and Wycliffe's Bible, it's hard not to have.

In countries where there isn't freedom of speech, books matter. -Elif Shafak

Why are some books considered dangerous? What is it about a fictional story in another world that causes entire governments to shudder in fear? Some of my favorite dystopian books have been banned in various parts of the world (Brave New World--Ireland and the US, 1984--China, Soviet Union, and the US, Fahrenheit 451 and The Handmaid's Tale--US). In fact, for a few weeks in 2018, social media users in China found that they could not type 1 9 8 and 4 in sequence because it was too close to the title. Some authors even fear for their lives because of how their publications have been received; Elif Shafak, who now lives in England, no longer returns to Turkey for fear of harassment or worse.

It struck me how some themes are considered more intolerable than others. It's true that books with adult themes such as sexual violence may be difficult to read on their own, but in the classroom can be important tools that teach broader themes. Often, books challenged the most for their sensitive content are done so by law makers who haven't bothered to read the book and just take an excerpt out of context as proof for it's inappropriate content. In 2017, a school district in Arizona removed The Kite Runner from it's curriculum, citing insufficient approval of themes. A group of student journalists worked to overturn the decision by proving that Hosseini's work had been reviewed and approved for the curriculum. However, some books remain blacklisted for containing difficult topics. In 2017, The Color Purple (which I read last year) was banned from all state prisons in Texas for it's references to incest. At the same time, prisoners were able to access and read Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Depending on what book was being discussed, I found myself either shocked that such censorship was ever enforced (being charged with heresy and burned at the stake for readying Wycliffe's Bible) or wondering if it wasn't for the best that some books be unavailable for purchase (Germany refused to publish Mein Kampf after it inherited the copyright following Hitler's suicide). Overall, I believe in the power of education. Censoring information decreases our ability to think critically, explore topics fully, or learn from the harsh realities of history. It's important to add context with what we've learned as time goes on (Gone with the Wind romanticizes the antebellum South and whitewashes the horrors of slavery).

One of the main takeaways I have is that no matter where you are in the world, some ideas will be considered dangerous. Books are powerful tools that can be used for great good or great evil. But at the end of the day, it's important to have access to books and ideas. What we do with those ideas says more about the reader than it does the book.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great list of the classics that would surprise most people that have not seen banned book lists. The Canterbury Tales; Huck Finn; Grapes of Wrath; Fahrenheit 451; Harry Potter; The Hate U Give. These books tended to be the how-the-heck-did-this-get-banned collection, so I recommend giving/recommending this to all the instigators of challenging/banning books out there today.

This is a fairly quick read. Small book in size: 6" x 8" (15cm x 20cm), with about 50% graphic. About 250 words written per banned-book. Typically words on left-page, graphic drawing of the cover/etc. on the right page w a quote.

Pre-1900: 7 books
The 19th Century: 10 books
Between the Wars: 14 books
The Postwar Years: 18 books
The late 20th Century: 25 books
The 21st Century: 13 books
87 books total

The short text concerning each book did indeed get quickly to the point of how/why it was banned.

Need to keep this score at 4, for its brevity.

More reading...
Goodreads has a List/Genre:
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/bann...

The American Library Association
https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks
- Top 10 list
- Top 100 in 10-year increments for recent decades

This did motivate me to create a bookshelf of my own books here on GR for _banned
I will work diligently to expand this shelf's contents as I read!

[Meow558 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Banned Books was a pretty good read.
It was a very basic overview of several banned books, throughout several eras. I think this was very informative and interesting, it wasn't biased. I wish it had gone more in depth, or had a greater selection of books, but what is there is good. It includes several books about racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, religion, and other topics.
I would recommend this book to people who want suggestions on more taboo books (or formerly taboo) and who are merely interested in what is considered bad enough to banned.
Thank you to DK Publishing for this ARC on NetGalley.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief history of banned books, mostly focuses on banned books in the Western literary canon, would have been nice to see a wider variety besides the usual suspects.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

From The Decameron to 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, the editors have collected titles of the books that have managed to be controversial and challenged over the centuries. Early books were listed on the Vatican's Index Libroum Prohibitorum or List of Prohibited Books.

Each book is listed with the author and publication date (era) which includes those published/challenged into 2021. A brief summary of why it was condemned as well as the where/when it was challenged and results of the challenges. Reasons can range from 'inappropriate' portrayals of religious figures and themes to the frailty of human nature. Racial and gender portrayals - both positive and negative. Homoerotic relations. Death and euthanasia. Murder, violence and/or rape. Drug addiction. Parents feeling that the subject matter is too adult, too 'degenerate', too morally questionable.

Some I've read over the years. Some I've only heard of and will likely eventually, get around to reading. Some I will never read - due to content or possible personal impact. And many, I have never considered as having a reason to ban - - maybe I'm too open-minded??

Then there are the ones I've never heard of - like Emile Zola's The Earth; Kate Chopin's The Awakening; Final Exit by Derek Humphrey - among others.

Certainly, reading a book is a personal choice but before someone signs a petition to challenge the inclusion of any book - be it a public library or for a school assignment - I personally feel they should at least, read the book themselves in order to express their reasoning from a stance of actual knowledge rather than rumor and innuendo.

2022-198

[Steve Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

By no means exhaustive, this volume looks at some of the most controversial, provocative, notorious and revolutionary books ever written.

Some of the banned books include:

The Canterbury Tales
Frankenstein
Lolita
Mein Kampf
Catch 22
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Gone With the Wind
The Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
Wycliffe's Bible

Great reading and very informative.

[Seema Snitkovsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am absolutely blown away by how INCREDIBLY easy this book was to read, considering it's essentially an encyclopedia. It's a collection of historic banned books with brief descriptions of each and why they were banned. Super simple and digestible writing, and honestly I want this as a coffee table book. Something I really enjoyed is that the book mentions not just consequences to the book itself in the form of a ban but to the authors and publishers too ranging from being fined or reputation damaged to violence against them and their families. It also contains a shocking amount of what is essentially gossip: threesomes involving authors, an author making their super politically visible closeted ex into their villain main character, a book being carried during an assassination, even inclusion of CIA memos about using books as propoganda.

This inspired me to think a lot about the question of if banning books is ever okay, especially given that books are political tools which are viewed differently under different historical circumstances, so even our own current perception is influenced by the current historical "winners."
Some other things to mull over:
- It's so interesting how many of these are books which actually won nobel prizes or are now considered as cornerstones of change, but then also how many are continued to be viewed in an extremely critical light for seemingly good reason. Begs the question of is censorship of some content okay and what's the trade off with education.
- A frequent consequence of bannings is that books increase in popularity, so it's counterproductive. Interesting to consider.
- In schools, it seems that a commonly taken approach when a book is challenged is to require parental permission for it to be read in class. I'm torn on the merit of that approach.
- It seems that legally, there is often the camp of "no obscenity" versus the camp of "social or literary value." Also interesting how sometimes the part of the book that's clearly considered the issue isn't what's used to challenge it, and instead it'll hinder on some technicality or small other component.
- Very curious about the instances where it's the author that's the problem. Either for apparent appropriation, or their own actions and character unrelated to the books content.

[Gert De Bie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heerlijk leesvoer. Heel veel (oude) bekenden maar ook wel wat nieuws in de selectie.

[Elizabeth Chadsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly a list of well-known books and the history of literary censorship.

[Jude Rizzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate being reminded how important books and stories are for expanding multicultural awareness and the will of so many individuals in fighting censorship so the opportunity for that expansion isn’t lost.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A list, with commentary, about some books that have been challenged in countries, society, and/or schools. Some are well-known (Lolita, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) others seem obscure (The Complete Wycliffe Bible: Old Testament, New Testament & Apocrypha: Text Edition).
A total of 85 books and 2 series with a brief explanation of the controversy around each book.
A quick read.

[Correen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fully agree, books should not be banned. Children's lives are enhanced by the opportunity to select the books they want to read. Teachers are more effective when they can select books for their students.

Are there any exceptions? What about children (and adults) who are sickened by violence or other trauma inducing stress. The content of the books might be helpful but some consideration as to how the information can be presented.

The list of books presented by D.K. Publishing is a good list for teachers, parents, and readers in general. It gave a good guide for book selection. Salmon Rushdie's quote (p. 145) is simple and appropriate.

[Aiza Idris (biblio_mom) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Banned Books is a richly illustrated exploration of why some of the world’s most famous works were censored or challenged. The reasons vary: religion, politics, race, gender, sexuality, or even being “too depressing.”

Examples highlighted in the book:
📘 The Diary of a Young Girl - challenged for being “too depressing” despite being a vital Holocaust testimony.
📗 The Lord of the Flies - disturbing for its graphic descent into savagery.
📙 To Kill a Mockingbird - banned for racial slurs, depictions of racism, and its treatment of sexual assault.
📘 The Autobiography of Malcolm X - denounced for anti-white rhetoric and its descriptions of crime.
📗 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - accused of promoting premarital sex and hatred towards whites.
📙 The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie - condemned as blasphemous by many Muslims for its portrayal of Prophet Muhammad (through the character “Mahound”), its references to the so-called “satanic verses,” and offensive dream sequences.
📘 The Kite Runner - banned for its graphic sexual violence.
📗 The Hate U Give - challenged but eventually defended as an essential text on racism and police brutality.
📙 Harry Potter series - claimed to include “real spells” that might summon evil.
📘 The Awakening by Kate Chopin - banned for its critique of women’s roles and unapologetic female sexuality.
📗 The Handmaid’s Tale - condemned for sexual content and religious offense, but embraced as a symbol of resistance.

💭 The book also looks at politically explosive works such as The Gulag Archipelago, Final Exit, Shame by Taslima Nasrin, and even The Alchemist, which was banned in Iran.

💭 Visually, the book is gorgeous: filled with artwork, original covers, and striking layouts that bring history to life. However, since it’s written by DK rather than a single author, it feels more like an overview than a deep analysis.

💭 Still, Banned Books is an essential read for anyone who believes in the freedom to read and wants to understand why certain stories make people uncomfortable and why that discomfort matters.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

HARDBACK EDITION!

“If you start reading a book and you don’t like it you always have the option of shutting it. At this point it loses its capacity to offend you.”
Salman Rushdie

This is another winner from DK, nicely packaged, well-laid out and generally easy on the eye with some well-tailored summaries, facts and details to make for some really interesting reading. I certainly learned some new and interesting things between these pages.

This book also reminds you, that for America and all of its hot air about the land of the free and free speech, they are suspiciously big on going to great lengths to preventing exactly that. It would seem some speech is more free than others (spoiler alert: it helps if you are white, rich, straight and a Christian). And for a so called “secular country” there is a whole lot of weight and bias given to conservative Christianity over almost everything else?...

Far too often in the US we see it swept over by a feverish puritanism, meaning that religion is really just a free pass to spread and enforce widespread ignorance, intolerance and idiocy on the rest of the nation, usually with predictably depressing and repressing results. For such a warmongering, gun obsessed nation they seem to be incredibly sensitive to the slightest perceived infringement of their religious beliefs or ideas of homosexuality or racial equality.

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This non-fiction book explores why some book titles were once identified as too controversial for the public to read and presents the case for protesting the banning and censorship of books and the defunding of libraries.

I am a firm believer that books, conversations about books and interactions bring knowledge, belonging and community and are tools for a more cohesive and empathetic society.

I find it appalling that the majority of the books that are facing challenges of being banned in the US are PoC or LGBTQ+ related. It honestly mystifies me that parents of teens believe that ignoring that sexuality exists is going to protect their children instead of educating them, and making them understand potential threats, especially with the worldwide increase of online abuse and organized cybercrime.

I enjoyed that through getting to see some of the chronological accounts of censorship you can get an idea of the changes in society's ideas and customs. I feel that the book synopses and blubr overreaches, leaving the reader a bit underwhelmed. This is more of a series of curiosities and mostly deals with data from the United States. Still an interesting topic and well worth the read.

[joyce w. laudon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you think that books should be banned? Who should decide? Or…should readers themselves decide what they want to read? These questions have recently come to the forefront once again.

This book is fascinating. A perusal of its contents shows that book banning has been going on for centuries. It also informs the reader that books once banned are not banned for evermore.

For example, the first section of the book includes The Canterbury Tales, a title that is now often studied in schools and universities. Other examples of previously banned books include Frankenstein, Madame Bovary, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird and in the 21st century, The Kite Runner and The Hate U Give. These are just a few of the many books included in this title.

The book begins with a short introduction. The perspective offered is that censorship is generally counterproductive and often controversial. Following this section each title is described and its history and reasons for censorship given.

Browsing through this book will be interesting as readers look at books that they have either read or not picked up. In the end, I think that it invites its readers to think and care about this important issue.

Many thanks to NetGalley and DK for this title. All opinions are my own.

[Ashe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Banned Books: The World's Most Controversial Books, Past and Present, from DK Publishing, is an excellent overview of well-known books that have been, and in some cases still are, banned or censored in some places.

I think a lot of readers will know the bulk of these books, but it is really cool to get a brief synopsis of each book, and why it was banned. I also really enjoyed the way that it was organized. We got our pre-1900's all the way to the 21st century.

This is a nice-looking volume and I feel like it would make a wonderful coffee table book. I can't wait to get a physical copy. It can also be a good resource for younger folks when talking about censorship.

It's very visual, and I loved all of the colors and photos that are littered throughout. so much fun. and it's made me driven to read some of the ones I haven't read yet!

[jaroiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

U knih, uváděných na začátku, tj. těch starších, mi připadá text příliš stručný. Možná se hůř shání informace, ale ty by mě zrovna zajímaly víc.
U některých knih mi vadí spoiler, zejména u Jako zabít ptáčka. To jsem ještě nečetla a asi už teď ani nebudu.
Celkově je to hodně jen o kontroverzích v USA, ostatní země jsou zmíněny jen jako doplnění, že konkrétní kniha byla zakázána i tam a tam.
Přesto je však kniha zajímavá. Je vidět, že ani takový "vzor svobody", jak se nám Amerika předkládá, není tak dokonale svobodný. A že její problém např. s rasovou otázkou hluboce zasahuje celou jejich kulturu.