banned books

18 Stories

Cop Enters Classroom to Search for LGBTQ+ Book

Massachusetts police, school have both since apologized

(Newser) - Earlier this month, a Massachusetts police officer entered a middle school classroom to search for a book about LGBTQ+ issues—an incident for which both the department and the school are now apologizing. A parent called the Great Barrington Police Department to report that they were concerned about an illustration...

Library to Ban Porn Star Book –After 20 People Borrow It

Checkout by customers already on the waiting list will be allowed

(Newser) - While an official committee weighed what to do with a Missouri library system's copies of Bang Like a Porn Star: Sex Tips from the Pros, a line was forming to read the book. The decision is in at the St Charles City-County Library: The book is banned. But first,...

Pink Has a Feisty Response to Florida Book Bans

Singer will give out thousands of banned or restricted books at Miami, Sunrise concerts this week

(Newser) - Groups and individuals have said they're boycotting visits to Florida and refusing to hold events in the Sunshine State due to Gov. Ron DeSantis' new laws on gender-affirming care, abortion, gun ownership, and teaching race- and LGBTQ+-themed subjects in school, among others. Pink is taking a different tack: The...

Most-Challenged Books Have a Common Theme

Most on American Library Association list were written by LGBTQ authors

(Newser) - The American Library Association logged a record 1,269 demands to ban books in 2022, nearly double the number from the previous year. In its list of the 10 books targeted the most (the list comes to 13 because of ties), most have LGBTQ themes and were deemed too sexually...

Utah Parent Says Bible Is 'Porn' Under Book Ban Law

Push to remove Bible from schools follows removal of 33 other titles

(Newser) - Frustrated that titles like The Bluest Eye from Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison have been removed from schools as a result of Utah's new book-banning law , one parent is pushing to have the Bible banned. "You'll no doubt find that the Bible ... has 'no serious values...

NY Public Library to US: Get Your Banned Books Here

Program makes 4 titles banned in other jurisdictions free to download

(Newser) - The New York Public Library is pushing back against book bans elsewhere in the country by making banned books available to all—with no New York library card needed. The Books for All initiative will allow readers over 13 anywhere in the country to access four books that have been...

Readers of Restricted Books Now Offered Cash, Grub

Locals object to Alaskan school board pulling classics from curriculum

(Newser) - Locals have responded to an Alaska school district's decision to pull classic books from the curriculum with efforts to ensure teenagers bury their noses in them. Since the Matanuska-Susitna Borough school board in Palmer voted earlier this month to stop teaching five books in elective high school English classes—...

School Kicks Harry Potter Out of Library

Pastor worries about effects of curses and spells

(Newser) - After consulting exorcists, a school in Tennessee has pulled the Harry Potter books from its library because of their magical content. In an email, the pastor of St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville said: "These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in...

Cosby's New Infamy: Kids' Books Among 'Most Challenged'

American Library Association is out with list for 2016

(Newser) - A celebrity once beloved among young people now finds himself on a list of books parents and other community members most wish to see removed from libraries: Bill Cosby. Cosby's "Little Bill Books" series is among those making the American Library Association's annual top 10 "challenged...

Librarian: I Banned a Book, Reaction Was Disappointing

Lots of outrage, little action, librarian writes

(Newser) - "In the library world, access to information is a human right, not to be tampered with or controlled in any way." That's how Scott DiMarco, a library director at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, starts off his piece in the Conversation . He points out the "balance in...

Mom: Son's Assigned Book on Cells Is 'Porn'

Jackie Sims wants to ban best-selling biography about Henrietta Lacks

(Newser) - Pornographic material surely doesn't belong on a high school reading list, but what about a best-selling biography about a woman who changed the course of medical history? If you ask Tennessee mom Jackie Sims, the two are one and the same. Sims is appealing to Knox County Schools to...

The 10 Books Parents Complained About Most

ALA finds tomes by non-white authors lead list of those that draw complaints

(Newser) - It turns out at least one part of publishing has a diverse slate of authors: the books most likely to be pulled from school and library shelves. The American Library Association today released its annual list of the 10 books receiving the most complaints from parents, educators, and other community...

Malala's Book Banned at Pakistan Schools

Officials: she's a 'tool' of the West

(Newser) - Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban and lived to tell the tale—but her peers in Pakistan, at least those who are privately educated, won't be reading it in school. The teen education activist's book, I Am Malala , has been banned in Pakistani private schools, officials say....

Florida County's Libraries Ban 50 Shades of Grey

Cite concern over 'pornographic' EL James books

(Newser) - A Florida county's library system has banned the erotic-fiction 50 Shades of Grey trilogy in light of its "perceived pornographic nature," a spokesman tells NBC Miami . Brevard County's 17 libraries had ordered 19 copies of the three EL James books, and there was a waiting list...

Book Banned in 1906 Back on Library's Shelf

Mark Twain's 'Eve's Diary' contained risque images

(Newser) - Massachusetts' Charlton Public Library is now one title richer, thanks to one man's detective work. Richard Whitehead uncovered a century-old controversy when doing some research for his new position as one of the library's trustees: a book banned in 1906 because it contained naked images. That weren't...

Vigilante Mom Returns Gossip Girl Books to Library

Orlando-area woman says she made her point about smut

(Newser) - The Florida woman holding her local library's Gossip Girl books hostage because she deemed their content "really inappropriate" has returned them. "I feel like I had done my part to help focus attention on this," Tina Harden tells the Orlando Sentinel , which broke the story yesterday. Since...

Fla. Mom Holds Racy Gossip Girl Books Hostage

She's had them checked out since 2008

(Newser) - A Florida mom is waging a one-woman war on the Gossip Girl books. Determined to keep her teenage daughter—and everyone else—from reading the racy fare, she's had them checked out of her local library since 2008, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Tina Harden says the books' references to sex...

Most Hypocritical Book Bannings

(Newser) - Banning a book is a move laden with ironies that can make the banner seem dull-witted in the long run. For National Banned Books Week, 11Points.com lists "the most hypocritical, ignorant, and, based on the content of the books, ironic" bans:
  • Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury: The sci-fi
...

18 Stories