Riot Headline Introducing: Reading and Resistance—And How Literature Has Always Been Tied to American Freedom
Quizzes

Quiz: Can You Guess the Banned/Challenged Book By the Complaint?

Take this quiz to see if you can guess the book that was banned or challenged by the actual complaint given.

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It’s Banned Books Week! via GIPHY Banned Books Week is an annual event where members of the bookish world —librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, authors, and readers—come together to celebrate the freedom to read without censorship. Here’s some quick info about Banned Books Week:

What does “Banned Book” really mean? What’s the difference between a “banned” book and a “challenged” book?

A book is “banned” when someone decides it is inappropriate, and the book is removed from the shelves of a school or library. If someone questions or requests that a book be removed, that is called “challenging” a book.

Why are books banned/challenged?

There are a variety of reasons, but really it falls into the “4S”s: Swearing, Savagery, Sex, or Satanism. For example, Harry Potter is a commonly challenged book, with requests it be pulled from library shelves due to its portrayal of magic (i.e. witchcraft, i.e. Satanism).

But, is it still a THING? I mean, banning books isn’t something that still happens, right?

Oh, it totally is still a thing. For example, in just the last year, Angie Thomas’s incredibly popular book The Hate U Give was banned from the Katy Independent School District in Texas (due to the book’s discussion of drug use and explicit language) and challenged by a police union in South Carolina they believed that the book is “almost an indoctrination of distrust of police.”

OK, but…so what?

Book banning/challenging matters because it is a form of censorship and in direct violation to our Right of Intellectual Freedom. Censoring what can be read means censoring what can be learned and what can be known. Now that you’re in the know about Banned Books Week, let’s test your skills. Can you guess which book is being challenged/banned by the (real) complaint?
Books mentioned: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak 1984, by George Orwell A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway 50 Shades of Gray, by E.L. James Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood Beloved, by Toni Morrison Carrie, by Stephen King The House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey Paper Town, by John Green Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck The Giver, by Lois Lowry I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou Has all this talk of Banned Books sparked your rebel reader spirit? Take this quiz to find out which banned book you should read next!