10 banned books that may surprise you

[pampango]

Sometimes the banning of a book is self-explanatory, but other cases may leave some of us scratching their heads – who could object to "The Wizard of Oz," for example? Here are 10 books that may seem innocent – but somehow they managed to offend someone.

1. "James and the Giant Peach," by Roald Dahl
2. The "Where's Waldo?" series by Martin Hanford
3. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," by Mark Twain
4. "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble," by William Steig
5. "Harriet the Spy," by Louise Fitzhugh
6. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," by L. Frank Baum
7. The dictionary
8. "Grimm's Fairy Tales," by Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm
9. "A Light in the Attic," by Shel Silverstein
10. "A Wrinkle in Time," by Madeline L'Engle

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2011/0928/10-banned-books-that-may-surprise-you/James-and-the-Giant-Peach-by-Roald-Dahl

[Posteritatis]

1. No challenged book really surprises me anymore

Wizard of Oz is simple enough; it'd offend the types of fundies who are up in arms over any other work of fantasy.

Even having the dictionary on that list doesn't surprise me in the least.

[DirkGently]

2. A Wrinkle in Time actually has religious undertones. Weird.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Is there any way to read the complete article that you linked to?

There wasn't much info there. Where are these books banned and why?

[pampango]

8. The link is to James and the Giant Peach but there is a "Next" button just below that.

There's a separate page for each book. Worked for me anyway. :)

[BoWanZi]

12. Just click "Next" and you will see each book.

[Cool Logic]

4. I don't understand...as far as I can tell, those books are not banned in the US.

[DirkGently]

6. Likely refers to school districts. Many ban all kinds of great literature.

Edit: Mostly on the grounds of religious hysteria.

[noel711]

5. Wizard of Oz is threatening because it's 'magical..'

and it had a girl as the 'hero,'
and there were no parents/authorities in the narrative,
nor was there religion, nor the moralizing that was
required of children's books of that time.

Baum himself was not particularly
religious, but tried various ways to find himself,
and make 'good.' Baum was a failed capitalist,
a rabid feminist(that's why many of his Oz books had female 'heroes,')-
he was very progressive, and some theorists claim
the 'Wizard' was an allegory for the populist movement
in the middle west, anti-gold standard (the 'yellow brick
road), and pro-farmers who'd lost everything in the economy
(hence the feeble scarecrow figure)
This children's book was/is still terrifying to
capitalistic patriarchy.

And let's not get started with Shel Silverstein...
quite an anarchist... and brilliant.

"Tom Sawyer" was a disobedient boy, and a bad
example for others...

"Grimm Fairy Tales" are just that, and we can't have
children reading fantasy, and then there's all that
violence therein. Same thing with the old MOther Goose
rhymes.. many schools ban that also.

I love children's books; they open the mind and
say so much.

[jmowreader]

7. I can understand why the dictionary's on the list

Come on, guys: what kid hasn't sat in English class looking for obscenities in the dictionary?

[LWolf]

9. No surprise here.

Having read all of those books, (well, maybe not the WHOLE dictionary, lol,) I can easily find something a fundie parent would object to in every single one.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Little House on the Prairie books are often on that list

over objections to calling Native Americans "savages".

I read an interview years ago with the author Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was asked why she used that term. Her reply: "That's what Pa called them"

[TBF]

11. The wacko fundies won't be happy until the fiction section is down

to one book - the bible.