Vive la résistance -- once again, it's Banned Books Week.
Launched in 1982 by the American Library Association, Banned Books Week is a seven-day celebration of the freedom to read. Throughout the week, readers are encouraged to highlight and discuss challenged books in order to raise awareness of censorship in the literary world. According to the the American Library Association, more than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982.
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So, what are these threatening titles?
Each year, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of frequently challenged books. The most egregious offenders: underwear-clad superheroes, wizards and a pair of gay penguins raising a family.
Here's a list of the most frequently challenged books in the United States every year for the past 14 years -- as well as the reasons they were challenged, according to the American Library Association.
2014: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence, “depictions of bullying.”
2013: Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence.
2012: Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group.
2011: ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group.
2010: And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group.
2009: ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: drugs, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group.
2008: And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group.
2007: And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, sexism, and unsuited to age group.
2006: And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell>
Reasons: anti-family, homosexuality, and unsuited to age group.
2005: It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health by Robie H. Harris
Reasons: abortion, homosexuality, nudity, religious viewpoint, sex education, unsuited to age group.
2004: The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence.
2003: Alice (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: sexual content, offensive language, unsuited to age group.
2002: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Reasons: occult/Satanism, violence.
2001: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Reasons: anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, violence.