Are Books Still Being Banned?

YA Author John Green posted on his Tumblr today about a teacher in Colorado who wants to start an elective course in YA literature for grades 10-12. The list of books on her curriculum has been challenged by a group of parents who consider the books to be "profane, pornographic, violent, criminal, crass, crude, vile, and will result in the irreparable erosion of my students’ moral character."

Here's a link to John Green's Tumblr post.

Here's the list of books:

1. Feed by M.T. Anderson
2. Thinner Than Thou by Kit Reed
3. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
4. Uglies by Scott Westerfield
5. Taken by Erin Bowman
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
7. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
8. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
9. Will Grayson, will grayson by John Green and David Levithan
10. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
11. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
12. Paper Towns by John Green
13. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
14. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
15. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
16. Looking for Alaska by John Green
17. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
18. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
19. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Have you read any of these books? Could you compare them to any other books from any other banned book lists? Do you agree with the group of parents? Discuss!

UPDATE: John Green posted on his Twitter that the School Board has voted to allow the teacher to go ahead with the proposed list of books. He adds:

A HUGE thank you to the ALA, NCTE, and the 1100+ nerdfighters who wrote letters of support for the teachers at Strasburg High School, CO.
— John Green (@realjohngreen) April 17, 2014

Most Popular Check-outs for February 2014

Want to know what you guys read last month? Here is a list of the ten most popular books checked out of the MRL system in February 2014:

1. First Love by James Patterson and Emily Raymond
2. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
3. Divergent by Veronica Roth
4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
7. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
8. The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
9. Matched by Ally Condie
10. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Are you surprised? Or maybe not at all. It seems like book series have been becoming increasingly popular, especially in the young adult genre. Once you read the first one you have the read the sequel, whether you like the author or not. And to make them even more popular, studios turn them into a blockbuster movie series with some of the biggest names in the business. That's why we see the Percy Jackson, THG, and Divergent series of books in the top ten, especially when the last one is set to premiere in about two weeks (more on that next week!).

But there are other popular book-to-screen adaptations that are in the MRL top 20. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (bought by 20th Century Fox with Tim Burton to direct) is #12, The Fault in Our Stars (premiering in June) is at #15, The Book Thief (which came out last year) is #17, and Thirteen Reasons Why (which Universal Studios purchased the rights to in 2011 and cast Selena Gomez to star in) came in at #18.

Does this explain why these books are so popular? Does having a movie adaptation make a book more appealing? Do you want to see what all the buzz is about? Comment with your thoughts.

Thirteen Reasons Why Author Webcast

Good news for anyone who loved Thirteen Reasons Why...

Author Jay Asher is hosting a webcast about his bestselling YA novel!

Monday, March 1

2:00 PM

Register here!

Which makes us wonder...

If you could ask Jay Asher one question about Thirteen Reasons Why, what would you ask him?

And for that matter, if you could ask your favorite author (unless it's Jay Asher and 13RW, in which case we've already covered that) just one question about your favorite book, what would you ask?

Comment with your answers!