List originally from Banned In The U.S.A by Herbert N. Foerstel.
  1. Impressions Edited by Jack Booth et al.
  2. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  3. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
  5. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
  6. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
  7. Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
  8. More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
  9. The Witches by Roald Dahl
  10. Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
  11. Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
  12. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
  13. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
  14. Blubber by Judy Blume
  15. Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
  16. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
  17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
  18. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
  19. Christine by Stephen King
  20. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  21. Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
  22. The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
  23. Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
  24. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
  25. Night Chills by Dean Koontz
  26. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  27. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
  28. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  29. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  30. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
  31. The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
  32. The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
  33. My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
  34. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  35. Cujo by Stephen King
  36. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
  37. The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
  38. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
  39. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
  40. Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
  41. I Have to Go by Robert Munsch
  42. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
  43. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
  45. My House by Nikki Giovanni
  46. Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
  47. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  48. Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth
  49. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  50. Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz

These are the most frequently banned and challenged books in US public libraries and schools for the nineties. Interesting to see that many of the items in here are also considered some of the best pieces of literature.

Oddly, for all of its violence, sexual content, and atrocities, The Bible is not on this list.

It should be noted here that many of these books were mandatory reading for classes at my (and I assume other's) school, notably:

2.Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
3.The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
4.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
5.The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
6.Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
9.The Witches by Roald Dahl
12.A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
13.How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
17.A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
20.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
26.Lord of the Flies by William Golding
29.The Color Purple by Alice Walker
34.The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
43.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Literature is one of the highlights of the human race. To say that these books should not be made available is to put down our own humanity.

On banning books and futile exercises

On 10 July 1964, the South African Publications Control Board published the decision that the book "When the Lion Feeds" by Wilbur Smith "is indecent, obscene and objectionable" on the basis that parts of it are deemed to be "indecent, obscene or are offensive or harmful to public morals." An appeal was lodged against the decision, and the High Court (then the Supreme Court) of the Cape, upheld the appeal by a majority of the judges.

In an appeal against the decision of the High Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal (then the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court), upheld the appeal by a majority, and reversed the decision by the Cape High Court. In the result, the book was banned, and could not be sold or bought in South Africa. The decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal was subsequently published in the South African Law Reports under reference Publications Control Board v William Heinemann Ltd 1965 (4) SA 137 (AD).

In dealing with the passages from the book that were deemed to be "indecent, obscene, or offensive", the Chief Justice was careful to steer as far clear as possible of using any direct quotes or referring to the passages by using words which in their turn could give offence. The result of his judgment was that the book was banned from bookshelves in South Africa. Nobody in South Africa was to be allowed to see the passages that gave such grave offence that the (then) highest court in the country had to pronounce judgment on it. That, after all, is what banning a book intends to achieve.

Curiously, though, nothing prevented Mr Justice Rumpff (he later became Chief Justice himself) from quoting the passages in a minority opinion dissenting from the learned Chief Justice. The law reports are widely published, and available in virtually every lawyer's office or chambers, with the result that anyone in 1964 who was interested in seeing what exactly Wilbur Smith had written that was so offensive, obscene and indecent that the book had to be banned, could do so at his or her leisure in the offices of any lawyer or any reasonably well-stocked library.

This of course begs the question: What was the point? The book was in any event later unbanned. Looking at the passages again, it is hard to see what was so bad that the book deserved to be banned. Such is the nature of censorship: What is offensive today, may be a mere commonplace tomorrow. "When the Lion Feeds" became a bestseller worldwide.

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