Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― This weekend marks the beginning of Banned Books Week, an annual protest against censorship in bookstores, libraries and schools.

Banned Books Week began in 1982, after challenges to books skyrocketed. Since then, more than 1,000 books have been challenged in every state in the country.

"People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups – or positive portrayals of homosexuals," says the official Web site for Banned Books Week. "Their targets range from books that explore the latest problems to classic and beloved works of American literature."

On Saturday, six of the authors of last year's most challenged books will appear at a Banned Books Week readout in Chicago. The event is scheduled to begin at noon in Bughouse Square, Clark and Walton streets.

Each year, the American Library Association compiles a list of the most banned books. In 2008, the most recent year available, the most frequently banned or challenged books were:

• And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, a story based on two real-life male penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York that coupled and raised a chick together. Reasons: "anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group."

• The trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, a fantasy series that was the basis for the 2007 movie "The Golden Compass." Reasons: "political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence."

• The series TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R by Lauren Myracle, a young adult fiction series about three girls' high school experiences. It is challenged for "offensive language, sexually explicit, and being unsuited to an age group."

• The Scary Stories series, a three-part collection of folklore and urban legends collected by children's author Alvin Schwartz. Reasons: "occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence."

• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, the story of a boy in New Mexico who witnesses numerous deaths and is forced to confront moral, cultural and religious issues. Reasons: "occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence."

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, a story narrated by an introverted teenager who relates experiences of abuse, drug use, and sexuality. Reasons: "drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group."

• The Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar, which explores the lives and sexual experiences, of teenage girls at a New York prep school, and is the basis for the TV series of the same name. Reasons: "offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group."

• Uncle Bobby's Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen, a children's picturebook about a little girl guinea pig whose uncle is getting married to a male partner. Reasons: "homosexuality and unsuited to age group."

• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the story of a man's childhood and lost best friend in Afghanistan, and his return to the country under the Taliban. Reasons, "offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group."

• Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper, a novel in which a junior high school-age girl uses flashcards to journal about her life and seek answers. Reasons: "sexually explicit and unsuited to age group." 

Numerous literary classics have also been the subjects of challenges or bans in the past few decades – among them The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

The Chicago read-out on Saturday will feature readings by Richardson and Parnell, Myracle, Chbosky, von Ziegesar, and Brannen.

Members of the City Lit Theatre Company and the Chicago Public Library Readers' Theatre will perform work by the authors who are not attending.

The host for the event is Chris Crutcher, a young adult novelist whose books were subjected to repeated challenges for dealing with such subjects as "divorce, violence, AIDS, and homosexuality." Crutcher now keeps a blog to track the removal of his work from schools and libraries, according to the Banned Books Week Web site.

Banned Books Week runs from Saturday, Sept. 26, to Saturday, Oct. 3.

Adam Harrington, cbs2chicago.com

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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