Caution - These Books Will Make You Think! Challenged and Banned Books: Selected Resources

"It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” — Judy Blume

Looking for a great book to read? You're likely to find several among the lists of challenged and banned books included in the links below. To learn more about these books, as well as about the issue of censorship, read on. Questions? Comments? Please contact Mrs. O'Keefe, at joanneokeefe@salem.k12.ma.us (This is a growing annotated resource list that will continue to be developed. Thanks for your patience!)

ALA: The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000
After examining this list (Are you surprised by the titles included?), check out the other links to a wealth of important information relating to your rights as a reader, in particular, "Intellectual Freedom Basics" and "Censorship and Challenges".

The Online Books Page Presents Banned Books Online
Banned Books Online offers access to the full text of the works of literature included in this "online exhibit".

OCLC: 2005 Banned Books
The books included here are featured both in OCLC's Top 1,000 and in Banned Books: Censorship Histories on World Literature. (Much more than just a bibliographic utility, OCLC features an outstanding and growing database of more than 82 million records, representing 400 languages, and is searchable by ISBN, Title, Author, Keyword, and many other fields.)

Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books, by Janet Yanosko

National Coalition Against Censorship
"The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), founded in 1974, is an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. United by a conviction that freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression must be defended, we work to educate our own members and the public at large about the dangers of censorship and how to oppose them."

"WHAT JOHNNY CAN'T READ: Censorship in American Libraries", by Suzanne Fisher Staples, The ALAN Review, Winter 1996 (vol. 23: no.2)
This thought-provoking article by the Newbery Award-winning author (her book Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind, was selected as a Newbery honor book in 1990) offers its readers valuable insight into some of the many ways in which parents, teachers, school and public librarians and other adults may create barriers between children and young adults, and the books they wish to read.

Censorship: from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This detailed article offers a solid overview of the issue, as well as information about attempts to censor books, films, music and other media around the world, and a particular focus on "Censorship of Educational Sources". It also includes an extensive list of links to other relevant articles and sites, as well as a "List of Banned Books", a "List of Controversial Books", and more.