some stats from my mom for Banned Books week…
from Sept. 26 issue of Publishers Weekly:
547: number of book challenges received by the ALA in 2004
458: number of book challenges received by the ALA in 2003
515: number of book challenges received by the ALA in 2002
448: number of book challenges received by the ALA in 2001
6,364: total number of book challenges received by the ALA, 1990-2000
1,607: number of challenges based on sexually explicit material
1,427: number of challenges based on offensive language
737: number of challenges based on violence
5: number of Judy Blume’s books among the 100 most frequently challenged books
15: number of years James Joyce’s Ulysses was banned in America (1918-1933)
217: number of years it took for the U.S. Supreme Court to clear John Cleland’s Fanny Hill of obscenity charges
1881: year Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was banned in Boston