Editor’s Choice: Read at Your Own Risk

Every year, the American Library Association celebrates the right to read with Banned Books Week. Featuring libraries from across the country, Banned Books Week highlights famous books that have been banned or challenged in institutions for a variety of reasons.

Here are some of my favorite books that have been banned before:

“Looking for Alaska” by John Green

John Green’s debut novel, “Looking for Alaska,” is a coming-of-age novel following Miles Halter as he navigates young adulthood at Culver Creek Preparatory School.

The friends he finds at Culver Creek, including Chip “The Colonel” Martin, Takumi Hikohito and the elusive and provocative Alaska Young, startle Miles’ worldview.

As the teens hang on the edge of their adulthood, they delve into what it feels like to be young in an increasingly pressurized world.

Many of Green’s novels have been on banned or challenged lists, including “The Fault in Our Stars” (now a feature film starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort). “Looking for Alaska” was banned for its offensive language and sexual explicitness. It was also considered unsuited for its age group.

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey

Set in a 1960s mental hospital, Ken Kesey’s classic novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” has been banned for multiple reasons: corrupting juveniles, descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, torture and glorifying criminal activity.

Well, I mean, they’re not wrong.

When Randle Patrick McMurphy is institutionalized, he shakes up the ward with his rebellious nature and outlandish attitude. The narrator of the story, “Chief” Bromden, tells the story through his hazy understanding of the world, the ward and the way of things.

“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini

A gripping tale of a boy growing up in Afghanistan during the tumultuous transition from a monarchy to Soviet Rule, Hosseini’s debut novel doesn’t shy from adult topics.

Amir must analyze race relations, the complex world of politics and help his father compromise his tradition with their new life in America. From all these heavy issues, Hosseini managed to write a beautiful story about growing up.

“The Kite Runner” has been banned for desensitizing children to violence.

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nick Carraway tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and mysterious man from West Egg, New York, in perhaps F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most famous novel “The Great Gatsby.”

Fitzgerald analyzes the workings of the wealthy during one of America’s greatest periods, the Roaring ’20s through the outlandish lifestyle of Gatsby. When Daisy Buchanan, an old flame, moves into the neighborhood, suddenly the secrets of the past complicate reality.

“The Great Gatsby” has been banned for its language and sexual explicitness, but it remains one of the most beloved novels in America’s classrooms.

Leave a Reply