Looking for a great book to read? Want one that somebody thinks you shouldn’t be reading? Try one of these, reviewed by CLP Staff.

ttyl by Lauren Myracle

Whispers From the Dead by Joan Lowery Nixon

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

These books — all on lists of frequently challenged and banned books — have been reviewed by teens right here in Pittsburgh.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round, Things by Carolyn Mackler

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Book Reviews

Book	Name	Date	Rating
Heist Society	Starbookreader	9/22/2011
Seventeen Magazine	Ashley	8/23/2011
warriors: forest of secrets	woanling	8/23/2011
Cruel Love(Priviledge Series)	Ashley	8/23/2011
the tale of two castles	woanling	8/23/2011
Breathless	Ashley	8/23/2011
The Amazing Srew - On Head and Other Curious Objects	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
Hellblazer / Hooked	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
Hellblazer / Scab	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
100 Bullets / First Shot Last Call	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
100 Bullets / Hang Up On The Hang Low	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
100 Bullets / Dirty	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
100 Bullets / Split Second Chance	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
Marvels	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
Hellblazer	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
ranger's apprentice: iceboundland	woanling	8/23/2011
the music lesson	woanling	8/23/2011
fablehaven: keys to the demon prison	woanling	8/23/2011
the faceless ones	woanling	8/23/2011
Maximum Ride: school's out forever	woanling	8/23/2011
TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY	Ashley	8/23/2011
The Fulminate Blade	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
Promethea / Book 2	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
Promethea / Book 3	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
Promethea / Book 4	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
justin bieber oh baby!!	Tamia	8/23/2011
Dark Fire	Mathieu	8/23/2011
The House of the Scorpion	Mathieu	8/23/2011
Darke	Karolin	8/23/2011
Warriors: The New Prophecy: Moonrise	Jessica	8/23/2011
Wrecked	Ashley	8/23/2011
Preacher Salvation	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
100 Bullets	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
PREACHER ALL HELL'S A-COMING	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
THE FAMILY MAN	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
LOCKE & KEY	Hadiyah	8/23/2011
Secrets of my hollywood life; there's no place like home	Ruth	8/23/2011
Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean	ASMARA	8/23/2011
The Secret Life of Prince Charming	ASMARA	8/23/2011
13 Little Blue Envelopes	ASMARA	8/23/2011
Warriors: The New Prophecy: Midnight	Jessica	8/23/2011
Maximum Ride	woanling	8/23/2011
Crookedstar's Promise	Karolin	8/23/2011
How to Train Your Dragon	Karolin	8/23/2011
Hamlet	Brandon	8/23/2011
Paper Towns	Brandon	8/23/2011
Of Mice And Men	Brandon	8/23/2011
Push	Daniel	8/23/2011
The Luxe:Rumors (Series, 2nd Book)	Marie	8/23/2011
it's all about me	leah	8/23/2011
lemonade mouth	leah	8/23/2011
justin beiber: first 2 forever: my story	leah	8/23/2011
4 kids in 5e and 1 crazy year	leah	8/23/2011
princess mia	leah	8/23/2011
reckless	woanling	8/10/2011
The Hunger Games: Book one	larissa	8/10/2011
Never Have I Ever	larissa	8/10/2011
Something Wicked This Way Comes	Mathieu	8/10/2011
captain underpants and the attack of the talking toilets	nakya	8/10/2011
captain underpants and the invasiuon of the incredibly naughty cafeteria ladies	nakya	8/10/2011
the jaguars jewel	nakya	8/10/2011
the ninth nugget	nakya	8/10/2011
THE LUCKY LOTTERY	nakya	8/10/2011
THE Haunted Hotel	nakya	8/10/2011
the talkin t rex	nakya	8/10/2011
the quick sand question	nakya	8/10/2011
Purple Princess Wins the Prize	nakya	8/10/2011
Pink Princess Rules the School	nakya	8/10/2011
SANTA clause dont mop floors	nakya	8/10/2011
THE DEADLY SISTER	nakya	8/10/2011
Dramarama	Kimberly	8/10/2011
Juicy Writing	Kimberly	8/10/2011
Unearthly	Kimberly	8/10/2011
Partly Cloudy	Kimberly	8/10/2011
Then I met my sister	Ashley	8/10/2011
Stolen	Ashley	8/10/2011
Every Little Thing In The World	Anna	8/10/2011
Serafina67 *urgently requires life*	Anna	8/10/2011
10 Things I hate About Me	Anna	8/10/2011
The Luxe	Anna	8/10/2011
But I Love Him	Anna	8/10/2011
The Bungalow Mystery	Tikva	8/10/2011
Harry Potter 3	Jake	8/10/2011
Harry Potter 2	Jake	8/10/2011
Harry Potter 1	Jake	8/10/2011
Pure Sin( Privledge series)	Ashley	8/10/2011
Warbreaker	Aharon	8/10/2011
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood	Leah	8/10/2011
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants	Leah	8/10/2011
Mockingjay	Leah	8/10/2011
The Hunger Games	Leah	8/10/2011
The Yellow Fever	Leah	8/10/2011
24 Girls in 7 Days	Leah	8/10/2011
The Outsiders	Leah	8/10/2011
Gemini Night( Star Crossed Series)	Ashley	8/10/2011
The Night My Sister Went Missing	Erica	8/10/2011
eldest	woanling	8/10/2011
pendragon: the rivers of zadaa	woanling	8/10/2011
Tempted	Sarah	8/10/2011
Copper Sun	Sarah	8/10/2011

• ALA: Banned & Challenged Books
  The American Library Association's banned books resource explains the difference between a banned book and a challenged book. It explains why books are most often challenged and who challenges them, and provides a list of groups that are First Amendment advocates, with links to their websites. From here you can access information and a calendar of events for Banned Books week, find the Office of Intellectual Freedom's blog, search for frequently challenged books by author, year, or decade and read through the librarian's toolkit for facing a library material challenge.
• ALA's Freedom to Read Foundation
  The Freedom to Read Foundation protects and promotes the freedom to read primarily through disbursing grants to individuals and groups who need help in related lawsuits, and participating in lawsuits dealing with the freedom to read and first amendment rights. The ALA page details these actions and has news updates regarding the Foundation and the people it honors.
• ALA's Freedom to Read Statement
  The full text of the Freedom to Read Statement, adopted in June of 1953 by the American Library Association, and a list of links to the websites of its endorsers.
• American Bookseller's Foundation for Free Expression Banned Books
  The ABFFE is a sponsor of Banned Books Week and has produced a free handbook for booksellers participating in the celebration, or anyone who wants to participate in some way. It includes display and event ideas, a list of movies about free expression, posters, images, and links to other resources.
• BannedBooksWeek.Org
  Provides information about the history of Banned Books Week, examples of banned and challenged books, and ideas of what you can do and what other people (authors included) are doing to call attention to banned and challenged books in your community.
• Banned Books Week on Facebook
  Become a fan of Banned Books Week on Facebook and receive updates on Banned Books Week-related events across the globe, news about banned and challenged books, and access to videos and promotional materials, as well as find other defenders of the freedom to read.
• Bill of Rights Defense Committee on Freedom to Read
  According to their website, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's "mission is to promote, organize, and support a diverse, effective, national grassroots movement to restore and protect civil rights and liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Our purpose is to educate people about the significance of those rights in our lives; to encourage widespread civic participation; and to cultivate and share the organizing tools and strategies needed for people to convert their concern, outrage, and fear into debate and action to restore Bill of Rights protections." They maintain a page devoted to the freedom to read which collects news stories and links on threats to the freedom to read.
• Blogging Censorship
  The blog of the National Coalition Against Censorship follows and reports on issues of censorship such as news of new challenges to library materials.
• Book Burning
  The American Library Association's collection of information about the history of book burning. A great resource for quotations and headlines about book burning, and a short bibliography of related works.
• Freedom to Read Display from the Cambridge Public Library
  An example of a library's Freedom to Read display
• Freedom to Read Protection Act
  A summary of the 2003 House of Representatives Bill, which exempted libraries and booksellers from having to provide private information to Federal Investigators in their investigations. A list of the cosponsors of the Bill is provided.
• Google Books: Celebrate Your Freedom to Read
  A collection of banned or challenged books that are searchable through Google Books. Limited previews of the text and bibliographic information available.
• Google Map of Banned or Challenged Books
  This interactive Google map shows where books were banned or challenged from 2007-2009. Clicking on an indicated point on the map calls up a window that summarizes the ban or challenge and provides links to more information.
• The Kids' Right to Read Project
  A project of the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Bookseller's Foundation for Free Expression, this project "offers support, education, and advocacy to people facing book challenges or bans and engages local activists in promoting the freedom to read," [quoted from the website]. Their website connects interested advocates to a network of other advocates, promotes the completed projects of the KRRP, and has a toolkit on Book Censorship, among other resources.
• Special Collections Exhibit on Banned Books
  The Department of Special Collections at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library (part of the University of Kansas) has an online catalogue of their Exhibit on banned books, which was originally published in 1955 and put together by the Director of the Libraries at the time, Robert Vosper.
• YALSA: Dealing with Challenges to Young Adult Materials
  The Young Adult Services Association's guide to challenges to YA materials. Provides contact information for ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom along with basic tips for dealing with challenges to the Teen collection and links to other resources and support on the web.

• ALA's Intellectual Freedom Roundtable Blog
  The Intellectual Freedom Roundtable, part of ALA, promotes intellectual freedom and discussion of intellectual freedom and has several awards that honor work in that area. Its blog reports on intellectual freedom.
• American Civil Liberties Union's Freedom of Speech Resource Center
  A source of breaking news on free speech issues ranging from the general to the specific (e.g.: Legislative Documents, Supreme Court Cases, Student Speech, etc.)
• Beacon for Freedom of Expression
  The Beacon for Freedom of Expression is a database put together by the Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression. It allows the user to search either for a censored work (by author, title, language, type of censorship or reason for censorship) or a publication on censorship.
• Chilling Effects
  The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics run this website, which tracks cease and desist letters and other intellectual property disputes, and explores the ways that legal threats can have a "chilling effect" on the creativity of the online community.
• Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
  The CBLDF is a non-profit organization put together to defend the first amendment rights of comic book authors and artists. The website provides a bibliography on comics censorship, files on the cases it has helped to defend, a history of comics censorship, and a history of the organization (which was founded in 1986).
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
  The Electronic Frontier Foundation involves itself in legal battles for digital rights and uses its website for the public's education. It maintains a blog and a podcast has and an archive of press clippings, but also has a tool to test your ISP for outside interference, among other digital rights-related software.
• First Amendment Handbook
  The entirety of this handbook, compiled by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, is available online. It is meant to be a resource on the laws affecting journalists and their ability to gather and publish information. It covers libel, invasion of privacy, surreptitious recording, confidential sources, prior restraints, gag orders, access to courts, access to places, Freedom of Information Acts, and copyright.
• Great Firewall of China
  A website that lists tested URLs that have been blocked in China. The FAQs address the anonymity of the site, the situation in China, and internet censorship in general.
• Index on Censorship
  The Index on Censorship is a British organization that aims to "[provide] up-to-the-minute news and information on free expression from around the world," [quoted from their website].
• MPAA Ratings
  The Motion Picture Association of America, along with the National Association of Theater Owners, has operated a voluntary board that rates every movie that is released in the U.S. This site allows you to search by title for a movie's rating, and explains the rules of the ratings and their history.
• National Coalition Against Censorship
  The National Coalition Against Censorship "is dedicated to protecting rights and principles guaranteed by the First Amendment. We report on incidents of censorship and provide support and resources to people facing challenges to freedom of inquiry and expression," [quoted from their website]. The NCAC is behind the Kids' Right to Read Project, Free Expression Policy Project, Youth Free Expression Network, and more.
• Project Censored
  Project Censored trains students in investigative research and publicizes news stories that it feels are misrepresented or underreported. It is based out of Sonoma State University and is a project of its Sociology Department. The website has a feature where censored or buried stories can be nominated, and is a place where these stories are reported.
• Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression
  Founded in 1990 and located in Charlottesville, VA, this non-profit's mission is to protect free expression in all forms, defined as three main areas of work: shaping the law, education, and the arts. The website lists all recipients of "Jefferson Muzzles", awards highlighing acts of censorship. It has podcasts of various programs relating to the themes of its mission, collections of legal briefs in which it was involved, an online exhibit about arts censorship, and more.
• University of Pennsylvania's Online Books Page of Banned Books
  This collection provides links to full texts of banned books and discusses why they were banned.
• University of Virginia Libraries online Censorship exhibit
  The Special Collections department put together this online exhibit to foster discussion about censorship. Nineteen categories dealing with the history of censorship can be explored, with accompanying scans of rare items from the Special Collections.

Below are some interesting stories of the past year or so, regarding your right to access information freely.

Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is absolutely banned by a Missouri school district.

Before the 2009 school year, high schools in Missouri's Stockton Unified School District added Sherman Alexie's award-winning young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to its ninth and tenth grade communications curriculums. However, it wasn't long before parents complained about its realistic portrayal of Arnold Spirit, a 14-year-old American Indian attempting to fit in at his first all-white school. Language, sexual situations, and general teen ribaldry were cited most often by parents, and in April 2010 the school board voted unanimously to remove the book from both the curriculum as well as the school library. Recently, due to public outcry, the school board is reconsidering its decision.

• Stockton Reconsiders Ban on Controversial Book

Glenn Beck group succeeds in removing LGBTQ book from New Jersey high school.

In May, members of the Glenn Beck-founded 9.12 Project used lists generated by the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network to challenge a number of LGBTQ-related books at Rancocas Valley Regional High School, located in New Jersey. The board of education subsequently removed Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology from school library shelves. Parents and teachers complained about the targeting of LGBTQ books, and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is currently assessing whether a lawsuit would be appropriate. The 9.12 Project plans to use these lists in removing LGBTQ-related material from all local area high schools and has been ennobled by its recent success.

• Glenn Beck Group Fuels Gay Book Ban
• Libraries Remove Gay-Themed Book At Beck Group Member's Request

Ellen Hopkins banned from Texas Teen Lit Festival as authors withdraw.

Ellen Hopkins was one of the original authors invited to the Humble, Texas annual Teen Lit Festival. However, her invitation was revoked after parents and a local middle school librarian complained to the superintendent. Hopkins, who explores subjects ranging from meth addiction to teen prostitution in books such as Crank, was notified that her appearance wouldn't be welcome. In protest, several of the other authors scheduled to come, including Pete Hautman, Melissa de la Cruz, and Matt de la Peña, revoked their own visits, causing the Humble Independent School District to cancel the event. Several authors, including Pittsburgh's Sharon G. Flake, still came to the Humble area in order to reach the teens being affected by the school board's decision.

• Authors Withdraw from Teen Lit Festival
• Kids' Right to Read Protests Efforts to Censor YA Author Ellen Hopkins
• NCAC Protests Cancellation of Ellen Hopkins Appearance at Teen Lit Fest in Texas

Death Note stays in Alburquerque high school, despite challenges.

In May, parental objections raised over Death Note -- the popular manga in which a teenager finds he has the ability to kill anybody in the world simply by writing their name in a special demonic notebook--sparked a hearing in New Mexico's Alburquerque Public School District. While parents objected to the concept of a teen willfully causing the deaths of others, the school district decided that it was an important rumination on responsibility, justice, and morality and retained the book in the three high schools which were carrying it. The complaints come on the heels of a rash of copycat notebooks, leading to suspensions and expulsions in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, South Carolina, and Alabama.

• Death Note Ban in Albuquerque High Schools Fails Vote
• APS Votes Against Banning Death Book

At Indiana high school, Song of Solomon removed, reinstated, and reconsidered within a year.

In April, 11th grade AP students at Franklin Central High School were studying the Toni Morrison classic Song of Solomon when it was suddenly removed from the classroom. Acting on parental complaints, school board members (one referring to the book as "garbage") requested the book be pulled from all school-based curriculum, which triggered a formal review process. After several days, the book was returned after it was reviewed by a committee of parents, students, and officials. It was challenged again in June by a parent who referred to the book as "pornography," though that challenge was again dismissed. Debates are currently ongoing as to what say school board members should have in supplementary reading assignments.

• Song of Solomon Prevails in Franklin Township!
• Song of Solomon won't be silenced at Franklin Central
• 'Song of Solomon' backed; appeal expected