National Banned Books Week!

[chillimous]

Funilly enough, Of Mice and Men is still compulsary reading for school.

[Niamh Sedai]

Actually, the list made me laugh so much! So many of those books are used as Exam Units over here.

 

To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies are all possibly books studied for GCSE( Exams we take when we are 16) English Lit, The Handmaid's Tale is a possible AS Levels (Optional Exams we take at 17) Unit and I'm currently doing a Comparison study between A Brave New World and 1984 for my A Level (optional Exams at 18) English Lit. And Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is available for AS English Language!

 

James and the Giant Peach? Yes, because obviously the idea of going to New York inside a Giant Peach is completely offending... *raises eyebrow*

[Maria]

Not to mention the fact that James' parents are eaten by a giant rhino at the beginning of the book! That's my favorite beginning ever for a book, btw. Nothing quite beats the randomness of that.

[Besolyn]

And Beloved was certainly weird.

 

Yes' date=' Beloved was weird (and graphic), but it was also the best and most in depth book I read for senior english (actually AP english, I'm a nerd too!). The movie should never have been made!

 

Lord of the Flies would have to be my second favorite (does that say something about my inner psyche?).

 

Also read

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling

16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine

22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain [/color']

[Elyssa]

Yeah the reasons for banning some of the books is beyond me especially seeing as they made a kids movie out of James and the Giant Peach go figure.

[Niamh Sedai]

James and the Giant Peach was the first film I ever saw at the Cinema =D I was seven *lol*

[Besolyn]

Dear Mentor, you're revealing your age (and making me feel old)

[StaffMaster]

SEVEN?????

 

I Graduated Highschool that year.

:evil:

 

*Goes off to Mothers to drink away the pain.*

[Guest Majsju]

*joins Empy on the drinking*

 

Not that I've got any actual pain about my age, but if there's drinking going on, I'm in.

 

Then it will be like this...

 

 

until Empy goes like this...

 

 

so he will get this when he gets home...

 

[Silver]

lol, i've never really seen the reason why parents want to censor their kids. i guess it might be because the parents want to ingrain their own beliefs so deeply that the kids will never question them even later on when they will have access to those books

[Niamh Sedai]

I apologise for revealing my age. ;) That was ten years ago though *lol*

[Elyssa]

Wow Nia you really are showing your age I was 16 then.

 

Lor my parents banned me from reading books but I read them anyway kids can get ahold of anything I don't think it's the parents doing though I think it's society in general.

[Kaznen]

A lot of those books are banned for "bathroom humor." But hey, kids like fart and poopie jokes, go figure.

[Angyl]

I've read no less than seventeen of those books, and I think it's ridiculous that anyone would ban those. And..definitely showing my age here..I remember when James and the Giant Peach came out, because I wondered whether I should take my son to see it ;)

They also made a movie based on Witches, I remember it had Anjelica Huston as the Grand High Witch. And A Stitch in Time was one of my all-time favorite books as a young girl. I can remember reading Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Lord of the Flies as school assignments, as well.

[chillimous]

Actually' date=' the list made me laugh so much! So many of those books are used as Exam Units over here.

 

To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies are all possibly books studied for GCSE( Exams we take when we are 16) English Lit, The Handmaid's Tale is a possible AS Levels (Optional Exams we take at 17) Unit and I'm currently doing a Comparison study between A Brave New World and 1984 for my A Level (optional Exams at 18) English Lit. And Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is available for AS English Language!

 

James and the Giant Peach? Yes, because obviously the idea of going to New York inside a Giant Peach is completely offending... *raises eyebrow*[/quote']

 

I did Lord of the Flies Pre-GCSE, i did it around year 8 i believe.

[Niamh Sedai]

I got an A thanks to Lord of the Flies :p

[Jeran]

I think I've read 11 of them.

 

For some reason reading the list reminds me of something from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "...a bunch of mindless jerks who were first against the wall when the revolution came." (May be paraphrasing here.)

 

I'm not sure why that comes to mind...

[Elyssa]

I never read Lord of the Flies but I did watch the movie and it is one book/movie I don't want to see again. But I wouldn't stop my kids from reading/watching it.

[Azshaya]

Holy Crappers

That screwed up...

Lord of the Flies was a cool book

No offence, but to you amaericans, You have one screwed up government

*nods*

Isn't it interesting, they just turned How to eat Fried worms into a moive, why didnt they ban it? :P

 

And Jeran, you had the quoet perfect

[BenTGaidin]

No offence' date=' but to you amaericans, You have one screwed up government[/quote']

 

Not that we don't, but... *grins* To be fair, though, these books were mostly banned by individual school boards, rather than higher govermental organizations.

[Niamh Sedai]

Yeah. And Lord of the Flies is weird Ely- it's not my favourite book in the world ;)

[Azshaya]

Yes it is weird

But its ha cool meaning behind stuff

That still make it a book that should be un-banned :P

[Liitha]

read about 5 on that list though most of them where series so in reality its more then 5 books...and yah i can see why some is baned though far from all

 

some on that list is adult books too *s*

[Serenity Maconar]

I love looking at these lists. Sometimes they're confusing, sometimes just funny, but they always show us (imo) what society at large is most afraid of atm. One interesting note is how books about gay parenting and witchcraft have taken such center stage on this particular list, along with classics like Huck Finn and Of Mice and Men. I think one thing I found especially amusing was that apparently a book written to help girls and parents talk to each other about what happens to girls bodies as they go through puberty was twenty one choices ahead of the same book written for boys. And people say sexism is dead :P

[Pale Rider]

I have read eight of these... funny thing is, I probably would have read more if I had taken different levels of English in High School(Mice and Men was read by the lower levels... I read Grapes of Wrath). Plus, Lord of the Flies was one of the lower level books as well. Don't ask what were the higher level ones. I don't even remember what years I read those books in, or would have read the banned books in.