Banned Books Week, Day 1

Today marks the beginning of the American Library Association's Banned Books Week, celebrating your and my right to read whatever we want by shining a light on the attempts to ban or restrict access to books over the past year. So I'm going to put up a post about a book every day this week. So let's start with:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Thorndike Press; Little). Retained on the summer reading list at Antioch, Illinois, High School (2009) despite objections from several parents who found its language vulgar and racist. In response to concerns, however, the district will form a committee each March to review future summer reading assignments. The committee, which will include parents, would decide whether parents should be warned if a book contains possibly objectionable material. This despite the fact that this semi-autobiographical book is still a best seller, won a National Book Award in 2007, and was on the list of the School Library Journal's Best Books of 2007.