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Texas Read-A-Thons
2002 Report
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Banned and Challenged Books in Texas Public Schools
2002-2003

Download the executive summary (PDF)
 

Title Author School District School Involved Use Reason for Challenge
Achingly Alice As an eighth grader, Alice is discovering her sexuality while at the same time experiencing the daily struggles of growing up with two brothers and a widowed father.

 

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

North East Independent School District (San Antonio)

Fox Run Elementary

Library

Sexual Content

 

Pleasant Grove Independent School District (Texarkana)

Pleasant Grove Middle School

Library

Sexual Content

Adventures of Super Diaper Baby

When their principal finds George and Harold causing havoc in the cafeteria, he assigns them an essay on good citizenship so they do not write another comic about their superhero, Captain Underpants. Instead George and Harold write about a new "superhero", Super Diaper Baby and his fight against evil Deputy Doo-Doo.

 

Dav Pilkey

Abilene Independent School District

Ortiz Elementary

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language Other: References to bodily waste

Airframe

Casey Singleton's life is threatened when she is sent by her boss at Norton Aircraft to investigate the mysterious circumstances of an airliner incident which killed three and wounded 56.

 

Michael Crichton

Lumberton Independent School District

Lumberton Middle School

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language

Alice in April

Alice is just about to turn 13 and is expected to be the woman of the house to her father and brother. She also copes with boys critiquing the figures of the girls, and the abuse of a classmate who later commits suicide.

 

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Humble Independent School District

Riverwood Middle School

Library

Other: Inappropriate subject content for adolescents

Alice in Lace

Alice's eighth grade health class instructor has assigned the students real-life scenarios to write about, such as pregnancy, shoplifting, and planning a funeral. Alice and her friend Patrick are to plan their wedding and honeymoon, find an apartment, and buy furniture on a limited budget.

 

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Humble Independent School District

Riverwood Middle School

Library

Other: Inappropriate subject content for adolescents

Alice In Rapture, Sort Of

This book in the Alice series covers the summer between grade school and junior high, when Alice and her sixth-grade friend Patrick start dating.

 

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Humble Independent School District

Riverwood Middle School

Library

Other: Inappropriate subject content for adolescents

Alice on the Outside

Alice is in the eighth grade and wonders about her relationship with her boyfriend, Patrick. She gains some insight into the nature of prejudice from a week-long consciousness-raising exercise at school, and must deal with a crush that another female student has on her.

 

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Columbia-Brazoria Independent School District (West Columbia)

Charlie Brown Intermediate

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language Sexual Content

 

Humble Independent School District

Riverwood Middle School

Library

Other: Inappropriate subject content for adolescents

 

Linden-Kildare Consolidated Independent School District (Linden)

Linden-Kildare Junior High

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language

 

McKinney Independent School District

Scott Johnson Middle School

Library

Sexual Content

All But Alice

Entering seventh grade, motherless Alice decides that she should try to find universal sisterhood. On her quest she joins a series of girls' clubs and is disillusioned. She also must deal with her father's dating and decide whether she should stick with her boyfriend Patrick.

 

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Columbia-Brazoria Independent School District (West Columbia)

Charlie Brown Intermediate

Library

Sexual Content

Alpha and the Dirty Baby

A young girl must outwit the family of imps that changed her parents into a lump of coal and an egg in order to get them back to normal.

 

Cole Brock

Abilene Independent School District

Ward Elementary

Library

Violence or Horror Mysticism or Paganism

Anastasia Krupnik

Anastasia, a precocious ten-year-old girl, keeps lists of things she loves and hates in a notebook, has a difficult time dealing with her mother's recently-announced pregnancy, falls for a 6th grader of a different race, tries being Catholic, and deals with the death of her grandmother.

 

Lois Lowry

New Braunfels Independent School District

Lone Star Elementary

Curriculum

Profanity or Inappropriate Language

Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging

Humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl. She tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome Robbie.

 

Louise Rennison

Houston Independent School District

West Briar Middle School

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language Sexual Content

 

Irving Independent School District

Lamar Middle School

Library

Sexual Content

Animalia

Animalia is an ABC book using alliteration to teach each letter of the alphabet along with pictures of random objects.

 

Graeme Base

Seguin Independent School District

McQueeney Elementary

Library

Violence or Horror

Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories

This book is a collection of six short stories whose protagonists learn about tough situations in life through their involvement in sports.

 

Chris Crutcher

Gregory-Portland Indepenent School District (Gregory)

Gregory-Portland Junior High School

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language Sexual Content

The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events

First in a series of stories about the Baudelaire children. Their sad tale begins with the loss of their parents in a fire and their subsequent life with mean Count Olaf whose only desire is to obtain the children's inheritance.

 

Lemony Snickett

Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (Houston)

Sheridan Elementary School

Curriculum

Other: Discusses child abuse and negative thoughts

The Beet Fields

For a 16-year-old boy out in the world alone for the first time, every day is an education in the hard work and boredom of migrant labor and teaches him more about friendship, hunger, or profanity. He joins a carnival and becomes a grunt, running a ride and shilling for the geek show.

 

Gary Paulsen

Rivercrest Independent School District (Bogata)

Rivercrest Junior High School

Library

Sexual Content

Bless Me, Ultima

Antonio, a young Hispanic boy in New Mexico, faces a complex maturation process after Ultima, a "curandera," comes to live with his family. Antonio is torn between his traditional Catholic beliefs and the influence of Ultima, who cures with herbs and uses supernatural forces to combat evil in their midst.

 

Rudolfo Anaya

Hubbard Independent School District

Hubbard High School

Curriculum

Profanity or Inappropriate Language Sexual Content Violence or Horror Mysticism or Paganism

 

Van Vleck Independent School District

High School

Curriculum

Profanity or Inappropriate Language Sexual Content

Body of Christopher Creed

Chris Creed is the school misfit who disappears one day. Speculation is that he has committed suicide, run away, or is a victim of crime. Torrey Adams becomes concerned (out of guilt) and begins to look for Chris. He finds that some mysteries are meant to be overcome rather than solved.

 

Carol Plum-Ucci

McKinney Independent School District

Faubion Middle School

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language

Born Too Short: The Confessions of an Eighth-Grade Basket Case

Matt Greene is short, lacks sexual experience, and has a cracking voice. He envies his best friend, Keith Livingston, who is tall, good-looking and very attractive to girls. One night, after Matt vents his frustration through a series of nasty wishes, Keith's fortunes start to turn sour while Matt's life takes a positive turn.

 

Dan Elish

Arlington Independent School District

Nichols Junior High School

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language Sexual Content

Brave New World

This novel describes a utopian state in which everyone consumes daily doses of  "soma", babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is "Feelie", a movie that stimulates the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Bernard senses that his relationship with a young woman has potential beyond the confines of their normal existence.

 

Aldous Huxley

South Texas Independent School District (Mercedes)

Science Academy

Curriculum

Sexual Content

Bridge to Terabithia

Jesse's dull rural world expands when he becomes friends with Leslie, the new girl in school, and they create a secret world of Terabithia beneath a tree. When Leslie dies while trying to reach it in a storm, Jesse struggles to deal with her death and the effect her life had upon his.

 

Katherine Peterson

Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (Houston)

Sheridan Elementary School

Curriculum

Profanity or Inappropriate Language

Las Brujas (The Witches)

A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, an expert on witches, thwart a witches' plot to destroy the world's children by turning them into mice.

 

Roald Dahl

Pasadena Independent School District

Parks Elementary

Library

Profanity or Inappropriate Language

Buried Onions

Eddie tries to escape from the poverty and gang society that surround him by taking classes and staying away from his old gang friends. But when his cousin is killed, his aunt urges him to go after the murderer. Eddie tries to leave the neighborhood by taking a landscaping job, but this job goes awry. He joins the military and hopes that this decision will give him his best chance yet for a good life.

 

Gary Soto

Victoria Independent School District

Juan Linn Elementary

Library

Violence or Horror

Cave Under the City

Tolly, twelve, and his brother, Bubber, six, are growing up in the Bronx during the Depression. Their father must leave home to find work, and their mother and grandmother are too ill to care for them. The boys take to the streets to avoid being taken by the authorities and separated.

 

Harry Mazer

Darrouzett Independent School District

Darrouzett Elementary

Library

Other: Inappropriate themes

The Cay

In April, 1942, following the torpedo blast that sinks his Virginia-bound ship, eleven-year-old Phillip Enright is left blinded and stranded on a saltwater cay with a large Negro named Timothy. Phillip learns to trust and love Timothy in order to survive.

 

Theodore Taylor

Terrell Independent School District

Wood Intermediate School

Library

Other: Racial remarks, prejudice

Children, Violence, and Murder

Causes of violent crime involving children as well as attitudes toward child criminals are explored. Case histories of young murderers, and tragedies such as the Columbine High School shooting, are profiled.

 

Richard Worth

Wharton Independent School District

Wharton Junior High School

Library

Violence or Horror

The China Garden

Seventeen-year-old Clare Meredith goes to Ravensmere, an English estate, to vacation prior to entering university. She begins to have psychic visions and senses that she has been to the area before, and local villagers seem to recognize her. She is mysteriously drawn to midnight walks in an abandoned "China Garden," and subsequently becomes romantically involved with a young biker named Mark.

 

Liz Berry

Cleburne Independent School District

Cleburne Middle School

Library

Sexual Content Mysticism or Paganism