Banned books are nothing new. The history of book bans extends since ancient times. Legend has it that in 213 BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi of China ordered the burning of many books and records in his kingdom, which is why not much can be known about his reign at that era.
While some of them are banned for good reasons as they deal with sensitive issues of a particular society or oppose a belief or proven facts, others from books, especially for children and novels, have been banned for reasons that can be described as absurd!
The most famous books banned for strange reasons!
1-HARRIET THE SPY
The book was published in 1964 by Louise Fitzhoff, and it is one of the classic novels in children's literature.
The book chronicles the adventures of 11-year-old Harriet, who hides her notebook and lives a quiet life until things turn around after the notes are discovered and she has to deal with a backlash.
The book was banned by many schools considering that Harriet's story encourages children to lie, spy, and other behaviors they consider toxic.
2-BLUBBER
Bloom's novel, published in 1974, is about bullying and bullying. It revolves around the main character who learns an important lesson about the meaning of friendship and that popularity is not worth pretending to be the opposite of who he really is.
Despite many good situations in the book, many schools have banned it, arguing that the book is a bad example to children and teaches them that evil triumphs and bad is never punished.
3-lord of the flies
Author of the book "William Golding" began his long literary career - during which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983 - with his first novel, "Lord of the Flies 1954".
The novel deals with a group of boys who are stranded on a remote island without adults. At first, the boys try to maintain a certain order, but soon they fall into uncivilized and violent behavior, which leads to the death of two of them.
The book has been banned in many countries, particularly schools, on the grounds that it causes depression, disgust and sadistic tendencies in children.
4-A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC
Some books were banned for containing details of child endangerment, and others were banned for containing completely ridiculous poems, such as Shel Silverstein's book Light in the Attic.
The book contains many silly and humorous poems directed at children and apparently intended to make them laugh.
The book did not receive the approval of the parents and demanded that it be banned in school libraries for the only reason, which is that the fifth poem, entitled “How not to dry the dishes”, encourages children to break the dishes so that they do not have to dry them!
This charge was very simple compared to the charge the book received from a school that claimed that his poems glorified Satan, suicide and cannibalism, and also encouraged children not to obey.
5-THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL
In 1943, 13-year-old Anne Frank, her family, and another Jewish family hid from the Nazis in a secret room in the back of an attic in Amsterdam, protected by only a bookshelf.
Anne described her life over the two years she was hiding in the attic with her parents in her diary. In 1944, Anne began rewriting portions of the diary she wanted to publish after the war. The last thing she wrote in her diary was just three days before she and her family were found by Hitler's Gestapo forces.
Anne died while imprisoned in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but her father fulfilled her wishes - the only one of eight people hiding in the attic who survived. Diary of a Young Girl was published in 1947.
Although the novel was very popular, especially as it embodied an important historical period, many educational authorities and children's libraries banned it due to the "real frustration" of the novel, as they described it!
6-CHARLOTTE'S WEB
An iconic children's book by E.B White, published in 1952, it was hugely popular and was loved by many, both children and adults.
Many parties have called for the book to be banned, claiming that it is unnatural for animals to speak, desecrating life forms and disrespecting the Creator's abilities!