Month: September 2017

The statistics have been calculated for the past year. Here is the latest list of titles along with reasons for the challenges. How many have YOU read??

The 10 most challenged books in the US last year:

1. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Reasons: Challenged over LGBT characters, drug use and profanity. It was also considered sexually explicit, with mature themes.

2. Drama, written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
Reasons: Challenged because it includes LGBT characters, was deemed sexually explicit and considered to have an offensive political viewpoint.

3. George by Alex Gino
Reasons: Challenged because it includes a transgender child, and the “sexuality was not appropriate at elementary levels”.

4. I Am Jazz written by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, and illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas
Reasons: Challenged because it portrays a transgender child and because of language, sex education, and “offensive viewpoints”.

5. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Reasons: Challenged because its cover has an image of two boys kissing, and it was considered to include sexually explicit content.

6. Looking for Alaska by John Green
Reasons: Challenged for a sexually explicit scene that might lead a student to “sexual experimentation”.

7. Big Hard Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction, illustrated by Chip Zdarsky
Reason: Challenged because it was considered sexually explicit.

8. Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread by Chuck Palahniuk
Reasons: Challenged for profanity, sexual explicitness and being “disgusting and all-around offensive”.

9. The Little Bill series by Bill Cosby and illustrated by Varnette P Honeywood
Reason: Challenged because of criminal sexual allegations against the author.

10. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Reason: Challenged for offensive language.

 

Wonderstruck the popular Middle-Grade fiction book by Brian Selznick (Ben and Rose secretly wish for better lives. Ben longs for his unknown father. Rose scrapbooks a famous silent actress. When Ben finds clues and Rose reads enticing news, the children independently run to New York for what they are missing. Ben’s story in words, Rose’s in pictures, come together in deafness.) has been made into a film! If you have not read the book then its movie trailer will certainly intrigue you. The film is in theaters on October 20th!

Fans of Jodi Lynn Anderson will love her newest YA novel Midnight at the Electric. Three interconnecting stories spanning over a century and a half are told:

Kansas, 2065: Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house more than a hundred years ago and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate. Oklahoma, 1934: Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine’s family’s situation is growing dire. She must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most. England, 1919: In the recovery following World War I, Lenore tries to come to terms with her grief for her brother, a fallen British soldier, and plans to sail to America. But can she make it that far?

While their stories span thousands of miles and multiple generations, Lenore, Catherine, and Adri’s fates are entwined in ways both heartbreaking and hopeful. This story has everything: romance, mystery, and (not boring – I swear!) historical fiction. 

The sequel to Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s Newbery honor-winning book will be released next month. This middle-school level title of historical fiction is set in England during World War II. Ada and her younger brother are sent to the countryside from London to escape the dangers of war.  Everyone who reads the first title has loved it- both boys and girls.  This sequel has gotten good reviews so far. Looking forward to finding out what happens next…