Banned or censored are done so for the content within their pages. There are a few common reasons that books have been banned or censored in schools, libraries, and book stores. These include:
Racial Issues: About and/or encouraging racism towards one or more group of people.
Encouragement of "Damaging" Lifestyles: Could include drug use, co-habitation without marriage, or homosexuality.
Blasphemous Dialog: "God" or "Jesus" are used as profanity. This could also include any use of profanity or swear words within the text that any reader might find offensive.
Sexual Situations or Dialog: Includes sexual situations or dialog..
Violence or Negativity: Violent acts, rape, depression or depressing tone.
Presence of Witchcraft: Books that include magic, the occult , or witchcraft themes. A common example of these types of books are J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series.
Religious Reasons: Satanic or witchcraft themes, negative portrayal of a religion or religions.
Political Bias: Most Commonly occurs when books support or examine extreme political parties/philosophies such as: fascism, communism, anarchism, etc.
Age Inappropriate: Banned or censored due to their content, or age or maturity level at which they are aimed. In some cases children's books are viewed to have "inappropriate" themes for the age level at which they are written for.
Many books have been banned or censored in one or more of these categories due to a misjudgment or misunderstanding about the books contents and message. Although a book may have been banned or labeled a certain way, it is important that the reader makes his/her own judgements on the book. Many books that have been banned or censored later were dropped from banned books lists and were no longer considered controversial. For this reason, banned books week occurs yearly to give readers a chance to revisit past or recently banned books to encourage a fresh look into the controversies the books faced.
Challenge: An attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.
Banned: Removal of materials.
Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection." -- ALA About Banned & Challenged Books
This channel includes readings of commonly banned books and interviews with authors that have been banned or censored.
Authors reading from and discussing commonly banned books.