The Diary of a Young Girl
No, Anne Frank’s diary hasn’t been removed from libraries because of the terror of hiding from Nazis. Schools have deemed some of the 14-year-old’s descriptions of her anatomy as “pornographic.” More cringe-worthy? One Alabama textbook committee asked for it to be banned because it was “a real downer.”
Charlotte’s Web
The unlikely friendship between a pig and spider sparked a much bigger controversy among Kansas parents in 1952. They had Charlotte’s Web banned because talking animals went against their religious beliefs, arguing humans are “the only creatures that can communicate vocally. Showing lower life forms with human abilities is sacrilegious and disrespectful to God.” We wonder what they’d think about the Cat in the Hat and Mickey Mouse and the three little bears and…
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck’s work of fiction was based on the reality of the Dust Bowl that left migrants homeless and in search of work. In Kern County, California, where the protagonists land, the real-life county board of supervisors didn’t appreciate the author’s portrayal of how locals didn’t help migrants. A 1939 vote removed The Grapes of Wrath from the area’s schools and libraries. Find out which classic novels and other brilliant ideas were conceived in dreams.
