Top Ten Tuesday: The Top Ten Banned/Challenged Books I Want to Read (Banned Book Week Edition)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies at Broke and Bookish.

I would likely want to read each of the below books even if they hadn't been challenged or banned at some point in history (including recent history), but there's something to be said for putting a big NO! sign on a book that only increases my curiosity. Especially since my experience with challenged and banned books has been very positive. Here is this week's Top Ten Tuesday list, the Top Ten Banned/Challenged Books I Want to Read:

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky  ~ A novel about an average teenage boy maneuvering his way through his teen years as he comes of age.

Reasons for being banned and repeatedly challenged: masturbation, sex, drugs and suicide

2. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ~ At once a horror story and a tragedy about a scientist and his creation whose innocence turns to destruction. 

Reasons for being banned: obscene and indecent

3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer ~ A young boy works through his grief after his father is killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack of the World Trade Center by solving the mystery of a key he finds in his father's closet. 

Reasons for being banned and challenged: profanity, sex, violence

4. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan ~ Trying to break the Guinness World Record for the longest kiss, two boys set out on a 32-hour kissing marathon. This novel is uniquely narrated by a Greek Chorus of a generation of gay men who lost their lives to AIDS.

Reasons for repeated challenges: GLBQT characters, sexually explicit, public displays of affection

5. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende ~ A family saga spanning decades and lives, with the personal and political, and full of love, magic and fate. 

Reasons for being repeatedly challenged: sexually explicit language, intense violence and cruelty

6. Native Son by Richard Wright ~ Goodreads describes this classic set in 1930's Chicago as being "an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America."  

Reasons for being banned and challenged: violence, sex and profanity

7. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. ~ An alien abduction, and jumping through time, particularly during World War II, this is the story of the fictional Billy Pilgrim's life. Although at times comical, the novel tells a tragic story and has a strong anti-war message.

Reasons for being burned, banned and challenged: referenced religious matter, bestiality, explicit sexual scenes, violence, and obscene language

8. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman ~ A fantasy trilogy about parallel universes and a young girl who goes on a rescue mission. This is a trilogy that has been said to make you question what you know. (Oversimplifying, I know).

Reasons for repeated challenges: anti-religious, drinking wine and eating poppy with meals

9. A Wrinkle In Time Madeline L’Engle (reread) ~ A childhood favorite of both mine and my husband's. The story of a girl and her brother who set off with a friend to rescue their father who has slipped into another dimension in time. 

Reasons for being banned and challenged: offensive language, undermines religious beliefs and challenges the idea of God, being too Christian, Satanic undertones

10. Junie B. Jones Series by Barbara Park ~ This series is toted as teaching children about morals and positive experiences from every day situations.

Reasons for being banned and challenged:  bad grammar and language, questionable decisions made by the main character and the messages the book sends.

Have you read any of these? What did you think? Are there any banned/challenged books you would like to read? If so, what are they?

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