February 20 – 26 is Freedom to Read Week, an annual event organized by the Book and Periodical Council that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom. To help mark this event, here is a list of books that have been challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 
Description: The tragic story of two itinerant ranch hands on the run–one is the lifelong companion to the other, a developmentally disabled man.
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, violence
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Description: Offred, a Handmaid, describes life in what was once the United States, now the Republic of Gilead, a shockingly repressive and intolerant monotheocracy, in a satirical tour de force set in the near future.
Reasons: Profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones”
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munroe 
Description: The story of a young woman who journeys from the carelessness of childhood through an uneasy adolescence in search of love and sexual experience.
Reasons: Explicit language and descriptions of sex scenes
When Everything Feels Like the Movies by Raziel Reid 
Description: Teenage best friends Jude and Angela navigate highschool while framing their experiences with movie terms.
Reasons: Offensive language and graphic content
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 
Description: Presents Burgess’ satire of the present inhumanity of man to man through a futuristic culture where teenagers rule with violence.
Reasons: Objectionable language
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill 
Description: Follows the story of Aminato Diallo, as she is kidnapped from her village in Africa and put to work in a slave plantation in South Carolina, to her journey back to Africa through Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.
Reasons: Offensive language.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
Description: Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives.
Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit.
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls 
Description: The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family’s nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 
Description: A Black woman recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
Interested in learning more about banned books? Check out The Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists compiled by the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF).
Plus the Challenged Works List, for more information about books, magazines and newspapers that have been challenged in Canada and internationally in past decades.
