Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A book that's been banned or challenged in any state in 2022

Okay, champions of the challenged book! what's been banned recently?!

I think the spirit of the prompt is a book that's been banned in any state or country.


Listopia list is Here: A book banned or challenged in 2022

Can't wait for the ALA list to come out for 2022.

We started on a list for ATY voting but I see someone amended it to be any challenged book, so can't say if it's reliable any more. There was a spreadsheet going round with 2022 challenges on though. I'll see if I can find it.

Ah it was from PEN and runs from 2021 but has the dates on so can be filtered. Lots of YA!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

I read The Complete Maus for my duology in the 2022 challenge and I highly recommend checking it out.

Yes, the PEN list was an excellent source. Fear not, I shall keep you all updated if I find others! :D

Texas banned like 800 books this year, so sadly we'll have a lot of options.

Jackie wrote: "Texas banned like 800 books this year, so sadly we'll have a lot of options."

Yeah and it's not just Texas. Other states are placing bans all over which is just rediculous.

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I'm going with

It's been on my tbr for a while and sadly it's on several lists.

It's gonna be a great year for reading books about gender diversity, with all the book banning that's been going on!

Even if I just go with books that are already on my TBR, I have The Hate U Give, Six of Crows, Girl, Woman, Other, Cemetery Boys, Half of a Yellow Sun, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, How to Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, I'll Give You the Sun, All Our Hidden Gifts, and They Both Die at the End as options, according to the Listopia. (That is...really depressing, that so many of my TBR picks are on the banned/challenged list...)

This is a good opportunity to read one of the many nonfiction titles on my TBR that don't fit into most reading challenge prompts. Good old Central York School District in Pennsylvania banned a bunch of books from being resources for teachers, so I can choose from:
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor
So You Want to Talk About Race

I've had The Testaments for a few years and still haven't read it, so I think I'll go with that

Lailah wrote: "This is a good opportunity to read one of the many nonfiction titles on my TBR that don't fit into most reading challenge prompts. Good old Central York School District in Pennsylvania banned a bun..."

You have a good list there. It's crazy that they ban books in general but even worse that they ban nonfiction. It's like they don't want their kids to learn about the world. That's over-sheltering in my opinion. Kids are going to find ways to learn about the world no matter what.

I am going with The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. It has been repeatedly banned by many states. NC joined the list in September.

Ellie wrote: "Ah it was from PEN and runs from 2021 but has the dates on so can be filtered. Lots of YA!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/..."

Thank you for this list! Depressing how many I found that I own and can read for this... But I'll probably choose one of these:
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Good Girl, Bad Blood
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Cemetery Boys
The Black Flamingo

The Black Flamingo looks interesting, so I'll go with that.

Apparently the entire ACOTAR series has been challenged/banned in a least one school district, so I'll finally be giving A Court of Thorns and Roses a read.

Ellie wrote: "Ah it was from PEN and runs from 2021 but has the dates on so can be filtered. Lots of YA!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/..."


yikes does the Collierville TN school system have any books left????

I'm going with Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You or Dear Martin. Both have been pulled from Pickens County School District here in South Carolina this year.

Erin wrote: "I'm going with Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You or Dear Martin. Both have been pulled from Pickens County School District here in South Carolina this year."

Nice. I have both the main one and the YA edition. I do want to read them but I haven't yet.

Nadine in NY wrote: "A book that's been banned or challenged in any state in 2022

Okay, champions of the challenged book! what's been banned recently?!

I think the spirit of the prompt is a book that's been banned in any state or country."
I thought this read as a very US-centric prompt. Glad you at least expanded it to include "country." My immediate interpretation was "US state." Glad this was one of the few more diverse prompts!

Sarah wrote: "Even if I just go with books that are already on my TBR, I have The Hate U Give, Six of Crows, Girl, Woman, Other, Cemetery Boys, [bo...
(That is...really depressing, that so many of my TBR picks are on the banned/challenged list...)"
While it is depressing they are all banned/challenged, the positive twist is that you had them all on your TBR listing!! Yay you! :)

Wellington, Colorado, just a few miles down the road from me, had a big book-banning dust-up this year, so I will look up that list of books and pick something from it. The story has a happy ending. The town council voted to ban book-banning. :-)

It saddens me that books like these are banned in 2022. Haven't decided which yet- checking with pre-K grandson. :)

- Mommy, Mama, and Me by Lesléa Newman

- The Great Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman

- My Two Dads (My Family) by Claudia Harrington

Nadine in NY wrote: "yikes does the Collierville TN school system have any books left????..."

If I had loads of money, I'd set up an Underground Railroad of passing around banned books across the country. Freedom!!!!

The Bluest eye by Toni Morrison

Stina wrote: "The town council voted to ban book-banning. :-) "

Awesome! Way to stand up to book banners! 😄

Apparently Looking for Alaska is on the list. I will read that.

I thought this prompt would be hard, but it seems like just about any book with LGBT content at all has been banned or challenged according to the PEN list above. I wish some of the lists would identify the reason the book was banned though. In some cases it is obvious, but there were some I just couldn't figure out.

Found a current edition of the PEN America list. It has banned books from July 2021 through June 2022.

There are over 1,500 books on the list.

Rachel wrote: "I wish some of the lists would identify the reason the book was banned though. In some cases it is obvious, but there were some I just couldn't figure out...."


I often wonder this too! Quite a few books on the list had me scratching my head.

I'm with you guys, I often wonder why certain books are banned as well.

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I think I found my list of books aside from The 1619 Project.

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

An African American and Latinx History of the United States

Teaching When the World Is on Fire

Teaching Truly: A Curriculum to Indigenize Mainstream Education

Fascinated to see that on the PEN list, Dear Martin has been banned/challenged but nothing for the sequel, Dear Justyce.

Nadine in NY wrote: "yikes does the Collierville TN school system have any books left????"

I'm wondering the same thing about the Central York school district in PA!

Rachel wrote: "I thought this prompt would be hard, but it seems like just about any book with LGBT content at all has been banned or challenged according to the PEN list above. I wish some of the lists would ide..."

Nearly all books challenged/banned in the last two years have either been by non-White authors or are by/about members of the LGBTQ community, particularly in southern states. Nothing like shouting your bigotry loud and clear enough for all to hear! 😐

Heather L wrote: Nearly all books challenged/banned in the last two years have either been by non-White authors or are by/about members of the LGBTQ community, particularly in southern states. Nothing like shouting your bigotry loud and clear enough for all to hear!

This. (*nod*)

Going through the Pen America list, it's insane at how many stories about BIPOC or by BIPOC author's are on there! It's sickening really, same with the LGBTQ stuff. I mean seriously, what are teachers supposed to teach these days?

Growing up though I remember we only read 3 BPOC books out of a list of over 20 from middle through high school. It's gotten worse throughout time.

L Y N N wrote: "I thought this read as a very US-centric prompt. Glad you at least expanded it to include "country."..."

I feel like most of us will be picking books challenged in the US because there is such a wealth to choose from. I haven't really been able to find any information about books challenged in my country this year. I can guess that some people will have complained about certain things, but there are no handy lists like you get out of the US.

Rachel wrote: "I thought this prompt would be hard, but it seems like just about any book with LGBT content at all has been banned or challenged according to the PEN list above. I wish some of the lists would ide..."


Yep and take a look at the kids books that are banned. Not many have potentially upsetting content (as if that alone is a reason to ban a book) most merely have a picture of a person of color on the cover. They couldn't scream their racism louder if they tried

Reading Gideon the 9th for this one

And these will all be the books that I encourage my son to read first once he's able to read!

I'm reading that list.

Ok, so... that's obvious, GLBTQA+

Why is that challenged? POC, civil rights movement, human rights, actual, real life, historical events? Kids aren't supposed to learn history now? Because it might upset someone? FOR FX SAKE IT SHOULD UPSET PEOPLE SO THAT THEY STOP DOING THINGS LIKE THAT!!! Don't rape people! WHAT'S SO F-ING DIFFICULT ABOUT THAT?


WHAT!?

WHAT!?!?!

Ketutar wrote: "I'm reading that list.

Ok, so... that's obvious, GLBTQA+

Why is that challenged? POC, civil rights movement, human rights, actual, real life, historical events? Kids aren't supposed to learn hi..."

great post!

Why is Homegoing on that Listopia?? I was so book-hangover after reading this, it took me ages to pick up another book after it.

I might stretch this. I am German, and the states here are not banning books from school, they rather recommend. Sounds like the same, but the German issue with our history is rather not profanity, sex, religion,.... but it is rather that you will have issues with books that are considered anti-democratic, or hate speech, against the constitution or demagoguery. I certainly do not want to read any of those... . I'd rather read one of those books that the Nasis burnt in 1933 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_d...
just from what I have:
- any John Dos Passos
- any Bertolt Brecht
- any Jaroslav Hasek
- A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway - they did burn all books or just some or all but one from several authors)
- Erich Kaestner but Emil und die Detektive
- Alfred Kerr
- Irmgard Keun
- several Jack London
- Erich Maria Remarque
....

CBS News published a list of the most banned books from the 2021-2022 school year.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-...

I've read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson twice. I highly recommend it. Anderson's own rape inspired the story.

Sold by Patricia McCormick is an incredibly powerful true story. McCormick interviewed a Nepali girl sold into sex slavery in India for it, and tells her story in a series of vignettes. It's a hard read and emotionally exhausting, but worth it.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is still being argued over. I'm conflicted over this book, but I believe it does have some worthwhile parts.

Some others that appear on banned book lists again and again…still:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Beloved by Toni Morrison

Thanks for the list, Dea.

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Dea wrote: I've read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson twice. I highly recommend it. Anderson's own rape inspired the story

This is one of my all-time favorites. I've lost track of how many times I've read it since I've read it as far back as when I was 12 years old.

Yeah, this prompt seems US-centric to me as well. The only currently banned books I could find in Australia were stuff like
the Peaceful Pill Handbook and some book on how to make weapons.

Yes, too US-centric! So i chose The United Arab Emirates, the states which banned Goat Days by Benyamin

Only Mein Kampf is banned here. Or rather, sale is banned, you can read it. And though it could be interesting as a historical artifact, I don't really have any interest in reading it. So I guess I'll go with something someone in the US or the UAE deemed too offensive.

I'll forever recommend Monday's Not Coming!!! and Dear Martin and The Hate U Give