Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

To Celebrate the Week

My love affair with the book began at an early age. Growing up, I read voraciously, spending hours in the library digging up treasures like James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, or A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. I glommed onto novels like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

In high school, I read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. In college, I inhaled books like Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

As a teacher in training, I got hooked on YA novels. Some favorites included The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney, Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher, Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and, of course, the entire Harry Potter series.

In the classroom, I taught books like Go Ask Alice by Anonymous and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

And now that I’m a parent, I’m thrilled to see my kids enjoying books like The Stupids by Harry Allard, Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park, and, to my delight, many of my childhood favorites.

So what do all these books have in common? All of them are on at least one of the American Library Association’s Most Banned Books lists. If you’re curious, check them out at:

1990-2000
2000-2007

So, in honor of Banned Books Week, I hope you’ll find a book on one of these lists to read — and enjoy.

What’s your favorite banned book?