Challenged, Censored & Banned Literature

Celebrate your freedom to read...Check out a banned book!

 Print Resources:

Banned in the U.S.A. 
(REF 025.213)This expanded edition presents a thorough analysis of the current state of book banning in schools and public libraries, offering ready reference material on major incidents, legal cases, and annotated entries on the most frequently challenged books.
 
   

Novels for Students (REF 808 NOV)
Headings under Novel titles include Plot Summary, Characters, Media Adoptions, Themes, Styles, Historical Context with a Compare and Contrast section, and Critical Overview. 
   
Banned Books Literature Suppressed Series
  • Religious Grounds (REF 098.11 BAL)
  • Social Grounds (REF 636.31 SOV)
  • Sexual Grounds (REF 364.03)
  • Political Ground (REF 363.31)

     

 

 Online Resources:

  Contemporary Literary Criticism
Contemporary Literary Criticism--Select is an extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary authors. Each CLC--Select entry contains a biographical/critical introduction, listing of principal works and sources for further study.
     


 

Scribner's Writers Series
Includes 15-20 page signed essays on more than 2,000 authors and literary genres drawn from the acclaimed Scribner Print Series.
     

  Student Research Center Contains thousands of online  primary documents, biographies, topical essays, 
background information, and critical analyses of popular literature.  Select Literature Search tab, then type in title of work.  Click link to left to access database.
     

  The Twayne Authors Series
Comprises 600 full-text titles from the Twayne Literary Masters series, 200 each from Twayne World, US, and English Authors.

 

Internet Sites on Banned Books & Censorship

About.com - Classic Literature - Banned Books  http://classiclit.about.com/od/bannedliteratur1/tp/aa_bannedbooks.htm

American Library Association - Challenged and Banned Books: www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/challengedbanned.htm

ALA - 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bbwlinks&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=40912

Banned Books Online: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/banned-books.html

Banned Books - Banned and Controversial Books: www.banned-books.com/

Books A to Z - Banned Books and Censorship: www.booksatoz.com/censorship/banned.htm

The File Room - Archive of Cases - Literature: http://www.thefileroom.org/documents/dyn/displayMedium.cfm/medium/14

First Amendment Center - Banned Books: www.firstamendmentcenter.org/Speech/libraries/topic.aspx?topic=banned_books

Forbidden Library - Banned and Challenged Books: http://www.forbiddenlibrary.com/

Other Days, Other Ways: American Book Censorship 1918-1945: http://ihr.org/jhr/v10/v10p133_Martin.html

National Coalition Against Censorship: http://ncac.org/

Yahoo - Banned Books: http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/humanities/literature/banned_books/

YALSA - 50 Years of Reading Free: http://wikis.ala.org/yalsa/index.php/50_Years_of_Reading_Free

Criticisms of Individual Titles That Have Been Challenged & Banned

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: www.pomperaug.com/research/huckleberry_finn.htm

NTCE - Rationale for Teaching the Color Purple: www.ncte.org/about/issues/censorship/resources/113739.htm

New Essays on the Catcher in the Rye: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=JP1ILxtlal8C&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=%22catcher+in+the+rye%22,+
 criticism,+banned&ots=o88ssOlXz5&sig=Vw_Hxas9KtYOAYhJMm4hD9Nm_d8#PPP1,M1
Praises and criticisms of J.D. Salinger's Catcher  in the Rye: http://www.levity.com/corduroy/salinger1.htm

Ray Bradbury & Fahrenheit 451: http://www.oneonta.k12.ny.us/hs/F451WebQuest.htm

Richard Wright: http://www.pomperaug.com/research/black_boy.htm

If you do not find what you're looking for in the above resources, try the search tips listed below.

 Internet Search Tips

  1. Type the URL (web site address) of a search directory/engine in the address box: ex: www.yahoo.com,  www.google.com or http://scholar.google.com/.
     
  2. (Be sure to type the address exactly the way you see it, including any uppercase letters and punctuation).
     
  3. Type in keyword(s). (If your keyword has two parts such as: "Mark Twain", be sure to put quotes around it so that the search engine only finds the Internet sites on old English as opposed to all of the sites containing the word Mark plus all of the sites containing the word Twain.
     

  4. If you would like to search for something specific about Mark Twain, try a combined keyword search by adding a comma followed by a space and your other search term. For instance; if I wanted to find information on the critical reception Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I would enter the following:

    "Mark Twain", "Huckleberry Finn", criticism [or] "critical reception"

    Hit Enter on your keyboard, or click on Search, then scan the description of the "hits" (entries) and click on the links that sound best.
     

  5. Be sure to critically evaluate Internet sources.  UC Berkley Library's Evaluating Webpages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask is an excellent source to help you critique the quality of websites in the following areas:
    • Authority: Can you tell if the author is credible (believable)?
    • Objectivity: Is the information objective (honest and free of bias)?
    • Currency: Is the information recent and up-to-date?
    • Design: Is the site designed in a clear and user friendly way?
    • Navigation: Is the site easy to navigate through, and are all links current and usable?

     

  6. Remember: if you choose to use any information (text or graphics) found on an Internet source, 
    you must include it in your bibliography.

Remember:  YOU MUST CITE EVERY RESOURCE YOU USED to gather information on your 
Works Cited (Bibliography) page.  Use the Works Cited Guide to access MLA format.
 

Created by Liza Zandonella, Library Media Specialist. 

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