Banned Books in YA Lit

The idea of books being banned is upsetting, especially when one of my favorite YA authors Rainbow Rowell's book, Eleanor & Park, is currently being banned in a high school in Minnesota USA.  The Parents Action League there believes that E&P is, "dangerously obscene" and "to hot for teens and taxpayers money." (Insert angry face here).

Some of you may have read Eleanor & Park as part of the library's Teen Survivor Summer Readers Program.  This book is awesome in a hundred different ways including featuring a Asian male as the lead male protagonist and a chubby awkwardly dressed red head as the female lead. In a world where almost every main character in a book, movie or TV show is white and fits within society's narrow standards of beauty THIS IS important. Eleanor in particular comes from a terrible home environment, is subject to some awful bullying at school and struggles immensely with fitting in and finding a safe place to call her own.  It may come as a shock to some, but these challenges and worse, are happening to teens across the globe.

Eleanor & Park may depict underage drinking, teenagers being intimate, bulling, and include profane language but that is not what the book is about.  The book is about falling in love, self discovery, and having the courage and strength to break free of a bad situation.

I strongly believe that a library should have books that feature situations and characters that EVERY TEEN can relate to.  This means books about rape victims, books about first love, books about healthy sexuality, books about broken homes, books about teenage drinking and drug use, books about gay teens, straight teens, transgender or questioning teens and books that feature lead characters from every race and ethnicity.

Sometimes we read to escape reality but sometimes we read to make sense of the reality we live in.  I have read so many amazing young adult books that have torn me to pieces but the best thing about those books is when I put myself back together I found that there were extra pieces that I didn't even know were missing.

Below is my top ten favorite banned or challenged books (including why they were banned or challenged) that changed how I think and how I feel about life and the world I live in.

1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
   Reasons: occult/Satanism
2. The Giver by Lois Lowry Reasons: violent and sexual scenes, infanticide, euthanasia, and “sexual awakening.”
3. Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
   Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
   Reasons: offensive language; racism
5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
   Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group.
6. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss                                                                                                             Reason(s): “anti-deforesting plot line.”
7. Charlotte’s Web by E.B White B.White Reasons: “[humans are] the only creatures that can communicate vocally. Showing lower life forms with human abilities is sacrilegious and disrespectful to God.”
8. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (Challenged) Reasons: "dangerously obscene."
9. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Reasons: Rape and Sexually Explecit material.
10. Luna by Julie Ann Peters Reasons: transgender and homosexuality as well as rough language.