Literature and Censorship

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Banned Books Quiz

Which literary staples number among the most challenged books of all time? What drives a school board to permanently pull books from classrooms? Take this eNotes quiz to see what you know about banned and challenged books deemed too sexy for school, too devious for the decade, and more!

  1. Why was The Rabbit's Wedding by Garth Williams banned from Alabama state libraries?

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  2. What book was pulled from a California school district in 2010 because kids could look at the sexual phrases in the text?

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  3. After school board officials in Virginia banned his/her book, this author wrote them a letter containing the comment, "I feel, however, that the problem is one of illiteracy...Therefore I enclose a small contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund that I hope will be used to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice.”

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  4. When this book was first banned in Concord, MA in 1885, it was called “trash... suitable only for the slums.” It remains one of the most challenged books of all time, mostly due to complaints that it "perpetuates racism."

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  5. "How will this fadge? my master loves her dearly; / And I, poor monster, fond as much on him; / And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me. / What will become of this? As I am man, / My state is desperate for my master's love..." This quote is from _____, a Shakespearean comedy that officials in a New Hampshire school system banned because they felt teaching it went against the "prohibition of alternative lifestyle instruction," which forbids discussion of homosexuality in classrooms.

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  6. What book did an Alabama textbook committee want to ban because they thought it was "a real downer"?

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  7. Several ministers and educators wanted to ban this book because of its "ungodly influence" and depictions of women in "strong leadership roles." The presence of the latter made them want to keep the book away from adults as well as children because they were afraid it would undermine traditional, "proper" gender roles.

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  8. What book caused outrage in 1852 and has been banned due to being "pornographic and obscene" despite the fact that the book contains no sex scenes and no sexual language?

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  9. "Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight." This was said by ____, the author of a frequently banned book that has appeared on the American Library Association's top 10 most challenged books list for six of the last ten years.

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  10. What book, banned in 1890 for encouraging "immoral lifestyles," contains a scene where a character says, "The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame"?

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