NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Vile book containing profanity, including the F-word, and use of the Lord’s name in vain. There is explicit kinky sex described in vile terms; sexual references to body parts and functions; specific mention of "whores"; males with mistresses; references to lesbians and homosexuals; text mentioning various birth control devices; doing drugs to control weight; smoking marijuana and drinking; out of wedlock pregnancy; pornographic poetry; irreverence toward Christian morals against out of wedlock sex; girls being deflowered; incest; and masturbation.
See for more information and excerpts: http://www.sibbap.org/bookshl.htm (NOTE: For this website, scroll down past the list of titles at the top of the page, then continue scrolling down through book titles and accompanying text until reaching the book in question.)
BLESS ME ULTIMA by Anaya, Rudolfo A.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-11 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: This book is vile and completely unfit for youth. It is supposedly written in the voice of a 6-yr-old child. It contains tons of every imaginable profanity, including the F-word; sexuality; grossly inappropriate material; occultism and superstition; and lots of drunkenness.
See for information and excerpts: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=Bless_Me_Ultima
See for information and excerpts: http://www.sibbap.org/booksag.htm
SPEAK by Anderson, Laurie Halse
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: This novel is about teenage rape, and contains a description of rape. It also contains underage drinking; teenage promiscuity; vulgar references; strong language; reference to abortion; and mention of suicide by cutting wrists.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksrs.htm
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS by Angelou, Maya.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Regardless of book's popularity, it is vulgar. It contains grossly inappropriate material, especially for kids. Maya’s rape by her mother's boyfriend is described in explicit terms. Her uncles then murder the rapist. Maya's grandmother's Christian faith is mocked throughout the book. There is profanity, vulgarity, and crude references. In one part, Maya discusses whether or not she might be a lesbian. Her parents have a succession of live-in lovers. Her father takes her to Mexico where he indulges in alcohol and sex.
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=I_know_why_the_caged_bird_sings
THE HANDMAID’S TALE BLOOM’S GUIDE by Bloom, Harold.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 8 and up on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: THE HANDMAID'S TALE contains vile material such as profanity and crudeness; very explicit promiscuous sex; prostitute style sex; pornographic sadistic sex; homosexuality; drugs; drinking; smoking; graphic descriptions of female body functions; suicides, both imagined and actual, including ideas on how to carry it out. The book denigrates the Christian religion in abusive ways, twisting Bible passages for blasphemous meanings.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/thehandmaidstale.htm
SEE also: http://www.sibbap.org/booksttheh.htm
Another site providing excerpts: http://www.operationinformation.com/books/TheHandmaidsTale.html
THE AWAKENING by Chopin, Kate.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: CB.com is not recommending this book for youth.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Novel is antithetical to Christian values. Contains remorseless adultery, extreme sensuality, and suicide. The cover for the book, as shown on amazon.com, is a photograph of a woman partially disrobed. See that cover here: http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Selected-Stories-Penguin-Classics/dp/0142437328/sr=1-1/qid=1166542439/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-4489629-5591647?ie=UTF8&s=books
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=awakening
THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET by Cisneros, Sandra.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Book contains age inappropriate material such as rape and girls behaving inappropriately toward older men and older men who also behave inappropriately toward the girls.
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=House_on_mango_street
BEE AND JACKY by Coman, Carolyn.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: CB.com is not recommending this book to youth.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Incest, i.e., specifically, a sexual relationship between a brother and sister, which is the primary theme of the novel.
CRAZY LADY! by Conly, Jane Leslie.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 5-6 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains some strong language and a single mother who is a constant drunk. Obviously inappropriate material for children ages 10-11.
THE CHOCOLATE WAR by Cormier, Robert
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains profanity, including using the Lord's name in vain; grossly inappropriate sexual material and activity; lewd references to female anatomy; reference to Playboy Magazine; physical violence.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/chocolatewar.htm
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksttheh.htm
I AM THE CHEESE by Cormier, Robert
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 7-8 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Cormier's novels for youth are dark and filled with despair. They also contain profanity and sexuality. I AM THE CHEESE contains some profanity and a lewd pedophile.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/bookshl.htm
CRAZY HORSE ELECTRIC GAME by Crutcher, Crutcher
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 5-6 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Please note the book is recommended for children approximately ages 11-12. Book contains profanity; drugs; sexuality; gang violence; street toughs; prostitution; child abuse; crib death; divorce.
Chris Crutcher's personal website ( http://www.chriscrutcher.com/ ) lures kids into his fight against so-called "censorship" of his books.
See the following link for a discussion of the unsuitability of Chris Crutcher's novels for youth: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=stotan
IRONMAN by Crutcher, Chris
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Profanity; vulgarity; sexuality; homosexuality. Boy’s coach is a homosexual.
Chris Crutcher's website ( http://www.chriscrutcher.com/ ) lures kids into his fight against so-called "censorship" of his books.
See the following link for a discussion of the unsuitability of Chris Crutcher's novels for youth: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=stotan
STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES by Crutcher, Chris
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 7-8 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Book contains profanity and is very dark and disturbing. A girl's father intentionally seriously burns her face.
Chris Crutcher's website ( http://www.chriscrutcher.com/ ) lures kids into his fight against so-called "censorship" of his books.
See the following link for a discussion of the unsuitability of Chris Crutcher's novels for youth: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=stotan
THE MIDWIFE’S APPRENTICE by author: Cushman, Karen
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for ages 12-16 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: This book is considered historical fiction because supposedly it accurately portrays the times in which it is set. However, the book is vulgar, period. It contains: (1) lechery of an adult male toward a girl age 12-13, including his pinching her on her "rump." (2) Drunken boys who physically chase and harrass the girl. (3) An adulterous affair between the midwife and the baker in the town. (4) Various other vulgarities.
CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY by Cushman, Karen
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for ages 12 and up on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: This book is excused by some because they feel it accurately portrays the times in which it is set. However, vulgar is vulgar. Book contains sexuality, adultery, and vulgar language. For example, here is an excerpt: "I ... stumbled over Robert and Elfa the laundress snuggled into the hay. It appears they will have to get another Virgin Mary for the Christmas play next year."
PAINTING THE BLACK by Deuker, Carl.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for ages 12-14 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains attempted rape and explicit sexuality.
A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER: A NOVEL by Dorris, Michael.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Profanity; sexually abusive priests; explicit sex.
FORGED BY FIRE by Draper, Sharon Mills.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 7-8 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Child sexual abuse; child physical/sexual abuse; drugs; violence; drunken stepfather; seriously negligent druggie mother.
KILLING MR. GRIFFIN by Duncan, Lois
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 7-8 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Killing Mr. Griffin is about teens who tie up their teacher in the woods, and the teacher subsequently dies. Contains profanity, marijuana use, and a murderous teenager who kills a grandmother.
SEE: http://www.parentsaware.net/bt_rev.html#Killing%20Mr.%20Griffin
THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Eco, Umberto.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: CB.com is not recommending this book to youth.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: A truly vile book containing explicit sexuality; homosexual lust; and gross vulgarity. It refers to Jesus and other biblical figures in horribly disgusting, blasphemous ways.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/bookstheiz.htm
SOPHIE’S WORLD by Gaarder, Jostein
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: CB.com is not recommending this book to youth.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Keeping in mind that Sophie is a teenager, Sophie's World contains some inappropriate sexuality, such as a bizarre scene at a garden party where people stand around watching a couple unfastening each other's clothes while they "make out" on the grass. There are also discussions about sexual topics that parents may not approve of or agree with.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksrs.htm
SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS by Guterson, David.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains profanity including the F word, and using the Lord's name in vain; racial bigotry; descriptions of sexual organs; lots of explicit sexuality; and a tremendous amount of vulgar language.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksrs.htm
UNVEILING THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Harken, Amy Lignitz.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: CB.com is not recommending this book to youth.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: This book by Harken addresses another book, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd. The description of Harken’s book on the CB.com website includes the following: "As we examine the character's [sic] of Kidd's novel, both as individuals and collectively, we get a sense that the novel is about presence - divine presence and how we experience it, and the presence of others and how salvation can be found there as well." (end quote) That description gives no hint of the truth about Kidd’s book THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, which contains instances of taking the Lord’s name in vain, vulgarity, profanity, and some morally murky situations such as a woman self-exploring her own body.
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=secret_life_of_bees
WITNESS by Hesse, Karen.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 7-8 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Profanity; strong themes of racism and violence.
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST by Kesey, Ken.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Book is grossly debauched and indecent. Contains profanity including the F word and taking the Lord's name in vain; suicide; homosexual rape; graphic sex; child sex; prostitution; and drugs and alcohol. That's not all, but it's enough to get the point across.
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=one_flew_over_the_cuckoos_nest
ANIMAL DREAMS by Kingsolver, Barbara
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-11 on christianbook.com
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Profanity including F word and taking the Lord's name in vain; vulgarity; teens having lots of sex, and lots of talk of sex. For example, there is a high school girl who becomes pregnant, miscarries in the bathroom, and buries the baby without informing anyone.
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=animal_dreams
THE BEAN TREES by Kingsolver, Barbara
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-11 on christianbook.com
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains sexuality, sexual perversion, child molestation, references to suicide, vulgar language, and disrespect toward Christianity. There is a blashphemous filthy reference asking the question as to whether or not God has a certain body part.
See: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=bean_trees
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES by McCarthy, Cormac.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-11 on ChristianBook.com
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Profanity, including taking the Lord’s name in vain; very explicit sex; and violence.
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=all_the_pretty_horses
CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD by Marquez, Gabriel Garcia.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on ChristianBook.com
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains profanity, including the F word and taking the Lord’s name in vain; vulgarity; and sexuality described in explicit, vulgar terms.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksag.htm
PARROT IN THE OVEN by Martinez, Victor.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 7-8 on ChristianBook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains profanity, vulgarity, sexuality, and otherwise unsavory situations, such as this excerpt: "That white b**ch teaches a class of gavachos, and you guys hang around waiting to see her a**." (Note: The words with asterisks are spelled out in the book.)
THE BLUEST EYE by Morrison, Toni
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-11 on ChristianBook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Toni Morrison's novels are widely challenged. THE BLUEST EYE is no exception. It is extremely vile. It contains a man who rapes his own daughter, who becomes pregnant. The baby dies, and the father rapes the girl again. The father also beats and otherwise abuses the girl. As a youth, the father was forced to have sex while being observed by a group of people. The book contains disgusting blasphemy. There is a sickening letter to God written by a pedophile, in which he describes in detail to God his sexual desire for little girls. There is a sexual scene which describes a couple's activity as, quote, "we stretches our arms outwise like Jesus on the cross." The book also contains profanity including the F word, vulgarity, bestiality, and violence.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksttheh.htm
SEE: http://www.classkc.org/review.php?book=Bluest_Eye
SONG OF SOLOMON by Morrison, Toni
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on ChristianBook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: This book is vile. "Contains an enormous amount of profanity, sexually explicit discussions, vulgarity, violence (murder), and racial slurs," and bestiality, incest and necrophilia. Included in "The 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison"
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksrs.htm
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=song_of_solomon
FALLEN ANGELS by Myers, Walter Dean.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on ChristianBook.com
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Horrible, over-the-top, graphic, repulsive descriptions of violence to human beings. Also contains vulgarity and profanity.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksag.htm
SEE: http://classkc.org/review.php?book=fallen_angels
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by O’Brien, Tim.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on ChristianBook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Horribly graphic violence; sickening, disturbing, macabre descriptions of corpses, including the corpses of children; profanity, including the F word, and vulgarity.
SEE: http://www.classkc.org/review.php?book=things_They_carried
THE FAMILY BOOK by Parr, Todd.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: This book presents to very young children the concept that homosexual families are acceptable (i.e., two moms or two dads).
THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED by Plum-Ucci, Carol.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on ChristianBook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Explicit casual sex; talk about suicide; profanity, including the F word; vulgarity, including frequent use of the word sl*t, which normally means a promiscuous female. In one passage, someone states jokingly that a boy who "systematically" had sex with an over-weight girl was slowly crushed by her.
BUFFALO TREE by Rapp, Adam.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: This book is not categorized as to age range on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Profanity ; sadistic violence; suicide; vulgar sexual references.
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by Salinger, J.D.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on ChristianBook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Book is considered a literary classic, but is morally unfit reading. Contains over 700 instances of profanity, including the F word and taking the Lord's name in vain; the hiring of a prostitute; a homosexual teacher who acts out toward the teen male protagonist; fantasizing about suicide, and the actual suicide of a student.
SEE: http://www.classkc.org/review.php?book=Catcher_in_the_Rye
WHEN I WAS PUERTO RICAN by Santiago, Esmeralda.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on ChristianBook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: This book has some really vile stuff in it. Contains profanity including the F word; vulgarity; explicit sexuality; vulgar comments about sexual body parts; and vulgar descriptions of sexual activity.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/bookstheiz.htm
TOUGHING IT by Springer, Nancy.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 7-8
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Profanity, including F word, and crude language. Is it edifying for 12-13-year-old youth to read novels about alcoholic mothers in seriously dysfunctional families?
THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER by Styron, William.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is categorized as "Homeschool Language Arts" on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains profanity, including taking the Lord's name in vain; vulgarity; and explicit sexuality.
THE JOY LUCK CLUB by Tan, Amy.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on ChristianBook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Explicit sexuality and other similarly inappropriate material.
SEE: http://www.classkc.org/review.php?book=Joy_Luck_Club
ALISON, WHO WENT AWAY by Vande Velde, Vivian
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is categorized as "Kids Fiction" on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Homosexual father has homosexual companion.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Vonnegut, Kurt.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for grades 9-12 on christianbook.com
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Contains profanity, including the F word and taking the Lord's name in vain; vulgarity; and very adult sexuality and vulgar sexual behaviors. There is a mentally ill man who imagines he is kidnapped by aliens who mate him with a porn star. A blasphemous passage in the book states that, quote, "Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck."
SEE: http://www.classkc.org/review.php?book=Slaughterhouse_Five
PETER by Walker, Kate.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended for ages 12-16 on christianbook.com.
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Homosexuality; sexuality; profanity; vulgarity; vulgar references to body parts. This is a story about a boy trying to decide whether or not he is homosexual. Contains profanity, taking the Lord's name in vain, and awful vulgarity. Contains explicit descriptions of his sexual feelings. He carries condoms to what he hopes will be a sexual encounter with another male. In one passage he thinks he would like to have sex with an older woman so she can give him pointers on what to do. There are vulgar descriptions of girls' bodies, the sexy clothes they wear, and their enticing behaviors. There are vulgar references to male sexual body parts. There are passages containing descriptions of homosexual lust and lewd homosexual behaviors.
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksmp.htm
THE COLOR PURPLE by Walker, Alice.
Link to book on christianbook.com:
NOTE: Book is recommended on ChristianBook.com for grades 9-12
OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Profanity, vulgarity, sexuality. Although the book is famous, its content is highly inappropriate. The movie made from this book was "cleaned up" somewhat. The book itself is much worse. It contains profanity including the F word and taking the Lord's name in vain. It contains adultery, explicit lesbianism, and graphic incest: a father rapes his daughter and fathers her child. He steals the child from her and murders it. This book is simply vulgar.
SEE: http://www.classkc.org/review.php?book=Color_Purple
SEE: http://www.sibbap.org/booksttheh.htm
Donna Garner
wgarner1@hot.rr.com