Alright, so it’s almost over, but I was busy, okay?

What with crashing markets (worried Cribsheeters can click here for Kara McGuire’s tips on budgeting in these perilous times), my own newspaper’s financial woes and what not, a girl can get distracted.

But back to Banned Books Week. This lovely idea of celebrating freedom of thought and speech has been observed since 1982 by the American Library Association and other groups. And since this is not Iran (or Alaska), the books are not actually banned, just, well, frequently challenged. Usually by well-meaning folks trying to protect children, so Cribsheeters will be interested to know that kids’ books have frequently made the list.

I was pleased to find that several of our bookshelf favorites are among those that have been challenged - “In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak, “Mommy Laid an Egg (Or Where Do Babies Come From?)” by Babette Cole and more than one book by the fabulous Shel Silverstein, whose serial killer mug on dustjackets is enough to warrant censure. Click here for a bunch of banned kids book reviews Strollerderby bloggers on Babble.com.

And here’s the list of books most frequently challenged in 2007.

What’s your favorite banned book, for kids or otherwise? And which ones would you stay away from?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 8:11 am and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.