This week is Banned Books Week - an annual event celebrating our freedom to read and the importance of open access to information. Books are challenged (an attempt to remove or restrict the material) or banned (an actual removal) for a variety of reasons - but they're all forms of censorship. We don't approve.

We were fortunate that when we were growing up, we could read whatever we wanted. Mom never discouraged us from reading and bought us or recommended to us many of the books below.

In honor of Banned Books Week, we put together a list of some of our favorite challenged or banned books - and the reasons why they made the list.





Why it's challenged: Challenged this year as optional summer reading in the Anoka-Hennepin School District 11 in Minnesota by a local group called the Parents Action League who complained it included, "extreme profanity and age-inappropriate subject matter that should never be put into the hands and minds of minor children".Why we love it: Eleanor & Park is a beautiful story about two kids who feel lost in high school. The deck is stacked against them. And yet, they find each other and that relationship makes both of them stronger. Rowell pointed out in a recent interview that the ugly things the book is being challenged for aren't what the main characters are doing, it's what they're facing and trying to overcome. I thought she said it best, explaining, "When these people call Eleanor & Park an obscene story, I feel like they’re saying that rising above your situation isn’t possible. That if you grow up in an ugly situation, your story isn't even fit for good people’s ears. That ugly things cancel out everything beautiful."



Why it's challenged: It was the most challenged book of the decade running 2000-2009. The most frequent reason was that it portrayed satanism or occultism.
Why we love it:  First of all, we don't get satanism out of it - to us, it's a story of love and friendship. Aside from that, though, this is our favorite get-lost-in-a-book series. It's magical.




Why it's challenged: Challenged as optional reading in the tenth-grade honors class at Troy, Pa. area schools in 2012 because the novel depicts a rape in graphic detail and uses vulgar language.
Why we love it: Yes, that scene is horrifying - but that's the point. You should be horrified by it. It help paints a broader picture of the setting in which the book is taking place.




Why it's challenged: Frequently challenged for it's "extreme violence" and "occult or satanic themes".
Why we love it: We grew up on these books. Did they sometimes freak us out? Sure. Have they turned us into violent adults? No way. For us, these were the gateway to Stephen King!