What is your favorite banned or challenged book?

This is Banned Books Week. It’s the perfect time to acknowledge the books in your life that others have banned, censored, or challenged for removal from bookshelves. For instance, can you imagine ever being prohibited from reading A Wrinkle in Time or Of Mice and Men? Would you mind if Beloved—recently judged the best book […]

Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Whitman: legendary authors of banned classics

A promise is a promise is a promise, and we’re a blog of our word. We pledged to feature banned and challenged books this month, in celebration of free speech and next week’s Banned Books Week, and we’re enjoying doing just that.
We also hope you’ve enjoyed Cuppa Joad so far this September. Read our […]

“Slaughterhouse-Five” champions peace and endures censorship

Burned, banned, and challenged in numerous U.S. states, Slaughterhouse-Five: Or, the Children’s Crusade, a Duty-Dance with Death is both a powerful anti-war protest piece and an exceptional work of satirical science fiction. Author Kurt Vonnegut introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, the novel’s star-crossed protagonist, time traveler, and optometrist. This classic’s approachable narrative leads the reader […]

“To Kill a Mockingbird”: much loved, often challenged

Powerful writing has a way of removing our social blinders. That’s why good books can also feel so dangerous to some people. Harper Lee’s sole and Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is considered to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. It is also one of the era’s most banned […]

Challenged books depict challenging young lives

Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Robert Newton Peck’s A Day No Pigs Would Die, and Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War are three extraordinarily well-written young adult books with strong plots, healthy protagonists, and compelling themes. These three books are similar in another way: According to the American Library Association, they have all been challenged, which means […]

Read books others would want to ban or burn

This month begins with Labor Day, is crowned by September 11th remembrances, and ends with Banned Books Week. It’s a momentous month and a perfect time to celebrate freedom. In a world where riots break out over controversial cartoons in newspapers, where authors have been targeted for murder for publishing their opinions, and where books […]