7 of the Wildest Reasons Books Have Been Banned

Good, important books get banned all the time. It’s dumb, sure, but unfortunately it’s nothing new. For instance, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that The Catcher in the Rye has been banned for being “obscene,” that Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret has been banned for talking about periods, and that The Diary of Anne Frank has been banned for being sexually explicit as well as what the Alabama State Textbook Committee in 1983 called “a real downer.” School boards have even censored Fahrenheit 451, a book that deals with the dangers of censorship, proving once and for all that irony can be lost on anyone.

But there are books you expect to be banned, and then there are books whose banned status might surprise you.