Censorship and Banned Books

1. Censorship and Banned Books Introduction to Fahrenheit 451

2. What is Censorship? • The suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, or sensitive to a certain group of people as determined by a censor.

3. Banned Books • Hundreds of books have been either removed or challenged in schools and libraries in the United States every year.

4. Why Ban Books? • Protect • Prevent corruption • Prevent copying dangerous actions • Avoid religious conflict • Protect against national security threats • Possibility of changing others’ opinions • Preserve secrets of the nation • Promote political correctness • Prevent public display of disrespect to a particular individual or community

5. Why Ban Books? • It all comes down to protecting children, especially against the following topics: • Offensive language • Unsuited to age group • Violence • Homosexuality • Occult or Satanic themes • Religious viewpoints • Anti-family

6. Where Can Books be Banned? • School libraries • Classrooms • Public libraries • College classes • Academic libraries

7. Popular Banned Books • Captain Underpants (series) • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian • Thirteen Reasons Why • Tango Makes Three • The Kite Runner • Looking for Alaska

8. Captain Underpants (series)by Dave Pilkey • Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group

9. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indianby Sherman Alexie • Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

10. Thirteen Reasons Whyby Jay Asher • Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group

11. And Tango Makes Threeby Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson • Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group

12. The Kite Runnerby KhaledHosseini • Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

13. Looking for Alaskaby John Green • Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group