Which books were Banned, Challenged, or Not Banned?

Books aren't often banned outright these days, but plenty are 'challenged'. A challenged book is the subject of an official request for removal, usually from a school library. A banned book is one that is forbidden to certain groups of people. A ban can be in a school or an entire country. The term 'banned books' often also includes challenged books.

Are you ready for Banned Books Week? How much do you know about book censorship? Find out by guessing which of these books were banned and/or challenged.

Created by: Hayley of Do You Read Me?
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  1. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. According to the novel, Muhammad was tricked into revealing these verses as part of the Qur'an by Satan and he later retracted them, saying the angel Jibreel had told him to do so.
  2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Set in the London of AD 2540 (632 A.F. in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, biological engineering, and sleep-learning that combine to change society.
  3. The Bible
  4. Phenethylamines i Have Known And Loved: A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin. Contains detailed synthesis instructions for over 200 psychedelic compounds (most of which Shulgin personally invented), including dosages, subjective experiences, and other commentary. The MDMA (ecstasy) synthesis published in PiHKAL remains one of the most common clandestine methods to this day.
  5. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. A common text on high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking world. The novel's protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion and defiance.
  6. Animal Farm by George Orwell. Satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism. Published in 1945, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II. Orwell, a democratic socialist, and a member of the Independent Labour Party for many years, was a critic of Joseph Stalin, and was suspicious of Moscow-directed Stalinism.
  7. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. A fantasy novel for children written as a christian allegory for the Crucifixion.
  8. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. A murder mystery following symbologist Robert Langdon as he investigates a murder in the Louvre, and discovers a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to and fathering children with Mary Magdalene.
  9. E for Ecstasy by Nicholas Saunders. Describes the drug ecstasy, the people that use it and the law concerning it.
  10. The Mad Man by Samuel R. Delaney. In New York City in the early 1980s, John Marr, a black gay graduate student, is researching a dissertation on Timothy Hasler, a Korean-American philosopher and academic stabbed to death under unexplained circumstances outside a gay bar in 1974. As details emerge, Marr finds his lifestyle converging with that of Hasler, and he becomes increasingly involved in intense sexual encounters with homeless men, despite his growing awareness of the risks of HIV.
  11. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures.
  12. Little Red Riding Hood by The Brothers Grimm. A famous fairy tale about a young girl's encounter with a wolf when she brings a basket of goodies to her sick grandmother.
  13. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. Light in the Attic is an illusrated collection of poems for children by the American poet and children's writer Shel Silverstein.
  14. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne. The book focuses on the adventures of a teddy bear called Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends Piglet, a small toy pig, Eeyore, a toy donkey, Owl, a live owl, and Rabbit, a live rabbit.
  15. Where's Waldo? by Martin Handford. A children's picture book in which the goal is to find a certain man, Wally, in a busy picture full of people. Wally dresses in a red and white hooped shirt and shellfish hat, carries a wooden walking stick, and wears glasses. He is always losing things, including books, camping equipment and even his shoes, and readers are invited to spot these items in the illustrations as well.

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