Banned Not Only in Boston

It's Banned Books Week again in this country. Sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Publishers Association and others, this promotion calls to the forefront attempts made throughout this past year as well as historically to ban books. Since the bulk of my reading during the school year involves textbooks, I seldom get a chance to delve into literature. Thus, I must humbly admit that I have not read any of the tomes on this year's top ten list. It appears that most of them are geared toward a middle school/high school audience, but I could be wrong...and without having read any of them, I can offer no opinioon concerning the objections listed. But here they are for you:

1.And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2.His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3.TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4.Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5.Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
6.The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7.Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8.Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9.The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10.Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

If you are a bit older and prefer"classic" literature, here's a URL which lists the classics that have been banned. We should have a contest to see who's read the most of these!
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

And, finaly, an interactive map depicting the what, when and where of book challenges since 2007:
http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html