Welcome to my stop on the Banned Books Week Hop!
2012 is the 30th Anniversary of Banned Books week, an annual event celebrating ALL books, and the rights of authors and readers alike to color outside the lines. I decided to participate in this event because I am a firm believer that people need to get out of their comfort zones, and often the reason a book will be banned is because of a refusal to do just that.
To prepare for this giveaway, I did some research into what books have been banned. Off the top of my head, the only book I could think of was The Catcher in the Rye
by JD Salinger, one of my faves; like most people who read it in highschool, I saw myself as a modern, female Holden Caulfield.What surprised me in reviewing a list of the most frequently challenged books from 1990 - 2001 (see the list) was how many of the books I would have listed as some of my childhood favorites and/or the most influential books I'd read. Before you take a look at the list, make a list of some of your favorite books - you might be surprised how many are on the list!
Some books I would give two (or more if I had them) thumbs up:
- A Light in the Attic Special Edition
- by Shel Silverstein
- How to Eat Fried Worms
- by Thomas Rockwell
- Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
- by Judy Blume
- The Giver (Giver Quartet)
- by Lois Lowry
There certainly are books that I have no desire to have my thirteen-year-old daughter read, and I can say that after taking a painful course in college on Toni Morrison's writing, I certainly object to me, personally reading any more of her books. However, I certainly don't feel that I have the right to make decisions about anyone else reading them. It is ridiculous to think that one person should make that type of decision for another.
My prize for this hop is either a $10 Amazon.com gift card, which you can use to pick out your own book, as I feel that anyone literate enough to be reading this is capable of picking out their own reading material.
The Rafflecopter will be available starting September 28th, and will accept entries until October 6th. After entering, be sure to check out the rest of the sites hosting their own giveaways in the hop. And check my Giveaways page for more prizes!
Well, I can't say this series of books was influential, I just loved it and all of them: Curious George.
ReplyDeleteChicken Soup for the Kid's Soul - It taught me a lot of stories on survival, kindness, and the ironies of life.
ReplyDeletethink and grow rich
ReplyDeleteI read for enjoyment so I don't usually read heavy themed books. I can't think of a book that was influential.
ReplyDeleteThe Lorax. It helped shape the way I looked at the world.
ReplyDeletemisusedinnocence@aol.com
I think Agatha Christie's books, because it made me realized that kind and evil is not always black and white, it's about choice.
ReplyDeleteI cant really think of any one book as influential. I loved Yertle the Turtle when I was a little girl. One of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteAlu - Harry Potter series
ReplyDeleteThe Little House on the Prairie series.
ReplyDeleteI think the Anne of Green Gables books have always stuck with me, in the same way Harry Potter is for my kids.
ReplyDeleteAs a teenager, Go Ask Alice was such a powerful book. After I got older, the Harry Potter books spoke to me like few other books every have.
ReplyDeleteI loved Black Beauty as a kid. It was my first real book I read on my own and I kept devouring books from there
ReplyDeleteTo Kill a Mockingbird. Or Ella Enchanted.
ReplyDeleteI remember Number the Stars being very influential to me as a child beginning to understand the world around me.
ReplyDeleteQueen of the damned, definitely.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about influential but The Giver by Lois Lowry was very thought provoking for me! Thanks for this amazing giveaway - I would love to win!
ReplyDeleteThe Giver really interested me.
ReplyDeleteCliche as it may sound, Harry Potter. I'm part of that generation.
ReplyDeleteBridges of Madison County...Thanks for the hop! Angie
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to pick just one ... I'll have to go with the Anne of Green Gables series and the LOTR series (really anything J.R.R. Tolkien wrote)
ReplyDeleteThe Pact by Jodi Picoult
ReplyDeleteThe Fear Street Saga and Goosebumps series by R.L Stine. R.L Stine was the author who got me hooked on reading when I was younger, if not for him I might not read as much as I do now. Thank you. :)
ReplyDeleteJodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper
ReplyDeleteThe Bible has been the most influential banned book in my life
ReplyDeleteThe Boxcar Children series and The Ordinary Princess
ReplyDeleteCharlotte's Web =)
ReplyDeletediana wynne jones' "archer's goon"
ReplyDeletethanks for the giveaway!
A book of collected Hans Christian Andersen's tales and The Adventures by robin Hood by Howard Pyle - I've read both so many times when I was a kid that even even so many years later I remember the stories perfectly. They taught me for the first time that not everything ends in a 'happily ever after'.
ReplyDeleteBible.
ReplyDeleteIt would have to be His Dark Materials series. It open a new way of thinking for me and to this day I still think about the books.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many books that have changed me. As a kid, when I was 11 I read a Robert Silverberg book, Starman's Quest, that ignited a love of science fiction stories.
ReplyDeleteFor me, influential isn't really the right word, but The Diary of Anne Frank did have a profound effect on me. Same with Flowers for Algernon. Loved both!
ReplyDeleteI have to go with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This book showed me that there were other young black girls with similar feelings (about family, culture and life), definitely need when I was 12.
ReplyDeleteI dont know if it's influential but What to Expect When Youre Expecting was a book I carried around with me for 9 months 5X for a total of 45months :)
ReplyDeleteI have to say Paradise by Judith McNaught. It opened my eyes to romance and historical romance! Weird I know.
ReplyDeleteAll the Judy Blume books had some kind of an influence on me...what a talented teen writer!
ReplyDeleteThe Butterfly Revolution- read it when I was a teenager.
ReplyDeleteDon't Sweat the Small Stuff has taught me to step back and put things in perspective.
ReplyDeleteHarry potter. It's reason I became a translator!
ReplyDeleteThe Diary of Anne Frank and The Giver.
ReplyDeleteProbably The Butterfly Revolution
ReplyDeleteThe Giver - I read it when I was very young, and it was profoundly disturbing. Still one of my favorite books!
ReplyDeleteFlowers in the Attic by V.C Andrews!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the name of the book but my grandmother had an old book of fairy tails with the original endings. A real shocker. Not all of them had happy endings.
ReplyDeleteI'm a science chick as well as a reader, so probably the most influential book I've read has been On The Origin Of Species or maybe The Selfish Gene.
ReplyDeleteMost recently, I'd have to say that my choices would be between "the Art of War" because it emphasizes anticipating and fixing problems while they are still small; and "As a Man Thinketh"
ReplyDelete-Luis Aponte, author of "Death of a Gas Guzzler" http://is.gd/Hv86kY
Harry Potter series!
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of books that have affected me, but one that I can think of right now is a Superman graphic novel. My fourth grade teacher read it out loud to us (I guess to get us more interested in reading - he had a lot of reading programs). The only part that I really remember was when Superman was trying to carry a load of wheat to the starving people in some country and the political leaders did not want him to deliver it. So they shot him with a nuclear weapon, knowing that it would not hurt him, but it would ruin the food. That one scene always reminds me that no matter how much power we have, the world can be a bad place and the only thing that we can do is keep trying to be better ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThe Lord of the Rings introduced me to the joys of reading.
ReplyDeleteHarry Potter books!
ReplyDeleteEnders game. it was the first book that really changed how I saw the world
ReplyDeleteDave Ramsey...Total Money Makeover.
ReplyDeletetarter95 at hotmail dot com
A Wrinkle in Time was a huge book for me because the main character was a lot like me, there was new concepts in the book, and it was just compelling!
ReplyDeleteRamona Quimby books!
ReplyDeletegreen eggs & ham by Dr. Suess
ReplyDeleteAre You There God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume
ReplyDeleteOh good heavens, I read too many books to pick just one. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe most influential books I've read have probably been the Bible and Wuthering Heights.
ReplyDeletePower of One and a Prayer for Owen Meany.
ReplyDeleteBesos, Sarah
Zookeeper at Journeys of The Zoo
journeysofthezoo at hotmail dot com
To Kill a mockingbird.
ReplyDeleteamandarwest atgmaildotcom
Without a doubt the Lord of the Rings was the most influential book I have read.
ReplyDeleteas a child I loved anything ramona quinby, and little house on the praire series, carawling(at)hotmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteanything by Shel Silverstein
ReplyDeleterierie11booger (@) yahoo.com
As a kid THE BLUE DOLPHINS, as an adult THE AWAKEING
ReplyDeleteTo Kill a mockingbird
ReplyDeleteFor me it was definitely A Wrinkle in Time
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that it's the Bible. Thank you.
ReplyDelete- Ara
To Kill a Mockingbird really taught me a lot about prejudice and compassion.
ReplyDeleteGrimm's Fairytales :)
ReplyDeleteoh my, influential? Not sure, since I hope the horror books I love reading haven't influenced anything around me... but I did enjoy reading the Little House on the Prairie series when I was younger and it really taught me about the importance of family and values.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Just what the main characters have had to go through and are still dealing with breaks your heart and the main part for me is the faith aspect.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the awesome giveaway!
larry niven's tales of known space, got me onto scifi as a kid - regnod(at)yahoo(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteA Wrinkle in Time and all Judy Blume...and childhood would have been far less sleepy without Stephen King and a flashlight at night :) I think the most influential though would have to be Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank..
ReplyDeletethe Bible and The Harry Potter Series
ReplyDeleteThe Bible ofcourse!
ReplyDeleteThe most influential book in my life... that's a difficult question because so many books have influenced me at different points in my life. I guess most recently, it would have been Fahrenheit 451
ReplyDeleteLisa Hackney
yankssssrule08 at yahoo dot com
Charlotte's Web
ReplyDeletejmesparza821(at)gmail(dot)com
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley!
ReplyDeleteThe Bible has been the most influential book for me.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to say. I've read so many books so far, that to hold up one and discount the rest would be highly unfair. Each book influences me in a reading, however small. But a wonderful Book that has brought me the most encouragement and sets an axample of morals between what's right and wrong is the Holy Bible.
ReplyDeleteI've always been a huge reader, but I'd say the Harry Potter books and the Stephanie Plum books were big influences for me because they impacted what types of things I read at that time in my life.
ReplyDeleteA book that had a huge influence on me was Stolen by Lucy Christopher.
ReplyDeleteThat would have to be If I Stay :)
ReplyDeleteI read Lord of The Flies in school and it blew me away. First book that was part of a lesson plan that I absolutely loved and I devoured the whole thing. Sad it's been banned
ReplyDeleteI don't know that any specific book has been influential to me. Just the fact that I learned to read influenced me more than anything.
ReplyDeletelkish77123 at gmail dot com
Hunger Games has been a great influence on me, and it was a book I thought I would never read. It was so good that my mom even read it!
ReplyDeleteTen Days to Better Self Esteem - thank you.
ReplyDeleteStar Wars books got me into sci-fi and more into reading in general.
ReplyDeleteA Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
ReplyDeleteThanks for the contest.