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
|
