Harry Potter Tops List of "Most Challenged Books"

Staff -- Library Journal, 2/7/2000

The best-selling Harry Potter series of children's books by J.K. Rowling tops the list of the ten books most challenged in 1999, according to the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom. The Potter series drew complaints from parents and others concerned about the books' focus on wizardry and magic. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received 472 reports of challenged titles last year. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school about a book's content or appropriateness. Most challenges are reported by public libraries, schools, and school libraries. After Potter, the list includes the Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, for using offensive language and being unsuited to age group; The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, for using offensive language and being unsuited to age group; Blubber, by Judy Blume, for offensive language and unsuited to age group; Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers, for offensive language and unsuited to age group; Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language and being unsuited to age group; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, for being too explicit in its portrayal of rape and other sexual abuse; The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, for its sexual content;. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, for sexual content and offensive language; Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson, for sexual content and offensive language.