Nationally and abroad, some of the most often-banned books have come from Arkansas -- including these:
• Summer of My German Soldier (1973) by Bette Greene. The author grew up in the Arkansas Delta town of Parkin near a German prisoner-of-war-camp, and described the book as "an emotional autobiography." A Jewish girl makes friends with a German prisoner of war.
The Clinton Public School board in Van Buren County clashed over Summer of My German Soldier in 2000. The fight centered on the book's use of curse words that some parents and board members found inappropriate for seventh-grade readers.
Finally, the board allowed parents who couldn't tolerate the language to scratch out the words they deemed objectionable.
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970) by Little Rock author Dee Brown. In one case in Wisconsin, the book was banned as "controversial" for being, as the cover describes it, "an Indian history of the American West." Little Rock's Dee Brown Library is named for the late writer.
• For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway. The story considers suicide in preference to capture during the Spanish Civil War. In 1940, the U.S. Postal Service refused to let it go through the mail.
Hemingway lived and wrote in Piggott, northeast of Jonesboro, around 1930. He worked on another of his frequently banned books, A Farewell to Arms (1929) while in Piggott, where he is remembered by the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center.
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou. The author describes her childhood in Stamps in southwest Arkansas. Although nominated for the National Book Award, the autobiography is frequently challenged for its depictions of racism and trauma.
"During these years in Stamps, I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare," Angelou writes. "He was my first white love."
Source: American Library Association
Family on 09/30/2015