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Hunger Games Continues to Grace List of Challenged Books

22 Comments April 9, 2012 by Filed Under: Hunger Games News

hunger games news Hunger Games Continues to Grace List of Challenged Books the hunger games2 300x438Two years in a row now, The Hunger Games has made it onto the list of “most challenged books” according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.  A challenged book, according to the association, is one that is subject to “formal, written complaint[s] filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness.”  Among the complaints are sexually explicitness, being unsuited to age the group it is marketed for, and violence.  When Suzanne Collins initially heard the news, she told The Associated Press:

people were concerned about the level of violence in the books. That’s not unreasonable. They are violent. It’s a war trilogy.”

I can understand the violence, and even contesting the Young Adult label (which maybe Joel Stein should take into consideration).  But sexual explicitness?  I’m trying to figure out where that comes into play.  Regardless, requesting that the book be removed from library shelves sounds a little too close to book-banning for my taste (and also reminds me of “The Hanging Tree” – the song in Mockingjay forbidden for its message).  Your thoughts?

[Detroit Free Press]

Category: Hunger Games News

  • Mothertree8

    What about “The Lottery”, “Lord of the Flies”, other books that have violence and are a bit disturbing.  Those were required reading when I was in school and I have heard they still are.  About the sexually explicitness..that is nuts.  Those books were extremely clean on that note.  My eight year old saw the movie, and wants to read the books…I will let her.  People don’t realize that the point of the book is that the violence by having kids fight it out is not okay, and the characters morals is the main part, in my opinion at least!  

  • Twinette

    Wow, that’s not right! I don’t see how the content of these books is bad enough to ban them! this book is age appropriate for people, i don’t know, probably ages 14 and up. If its the younger readers who are more than able to get their hands on the books that these complaints and concerns  are directed at, then there is such a thing as PARENTAL DISCRETION people. pay attention to what your kids are reading! You should be perfectly able to control what kinds of things your kids read, with out banning them and depriving the reading experience from everyone else!

    • People are Crazy

      My little sister read these books an I was concerned in Mockingjay, with the part where Finnick opened up about him being a prostitute. That’s the only thing.

      • Heather_Leigh

        I think I would probably call that hinting at sexuality, definitely not explicit, just mentioning something like that in passing.  I don’t think the books are for young children.  But if someone is old enough to handle the violence, they are old enough to know what a prostitute is.  I agree with you, people ARE crazy!  

  • bekiaah

    Wow. That is really sad. I LOVE the books and I don’t think that they should be banned from shelves! My mom was a little questionable at first about all of the violence and such but my dad read them and he said that they were fine. I agree. They have such a good message for people. Katniss is such a good role model and I think that if they took these books off of the shelves, girls wouldn’t have a good role model to look to. 

  • Gina

    Maybe the “sexual explicitness” is in regards to when characters are naked or mostly naked? Johanna and Finnick for instance… If so, that’s totally messed up. It doesn’t happen that often and it is a characteristic that helps us understand the characters personalities or situations. I can’t think that the kissing would be a problem, but people are weird. There is no reason for this book to be banned and I hope it doesn’t get to that.  I hate when people try to stop others from reading something just because they don’t like it…

  • Laurel Runesmith

    Okay, they have Twilight on our book shelves, and the entire last book is basically: Get married, explicit content, become vampire, more explicit content, and then they rip the heads of some vampires. And nobody’s questioned that?! Oh, and the pedophilac element when Jacob falls in love with Bella’s baby. Nobody even gives a passing glance to that, but when little ol Rue is stabbed, it’s explicit… And where in the entire series do these people find sexually explicit content?

  • Bluerose051283

    I hate to say it but I was one of the people who filed a complaint though I am a huge fan of the series. My 9 year old checked out The Hunger Games from her elementary school library. I went to the school and asked if any of the teachers had read the book or knew about any part of the trilogy. They said no so I requested that they read it and when they were done to have a meeting to discuss it. During the meeting it was agreed upon that it is a bit “heavy” for most younger kids and we came up with a solution… If a student grades k-4 wants to check out the books a permission slip must be signed by their parents advising of the content. As for my 9 year old, I told her she can either read it with me, chapter by chapter, or wait until she is 13.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Yamada/100001820883138 Joshua Yamada

    To Katniss Everdeen, The Girl on Fire!

  • Peeta’s #1 Fan

    I would say most of the sexuality is implicit not explicit.

    Like when Peeta says Katniss is pregnant.  (Even though she isn’t it’s what it is implying.  and they didn’t do anything so it’s fine.)
    Also like what People are Crazy said Finnick telling people he’s a prostitute.  (He never said the word prostitute so that makes it implicit, but still it’s there.)

    My opinion is it’s fine for teenagers to read, but people younger than that should probably have their parents read it with them, so they can talk about the violence and the implicit sexuality.

    Also about the two examples I think there were perfect for the book.  Peeta lied to try and get Katniss more sponsors, and so it really lets you see into Peeta’s character.  And with Finnick’s story it just made me hate Snow even more.  But again young kids without parents should not be reading this stuff.

    • Dakota_claire

      PFFFFT! I was halfway through the third book at age 9 before my mom even knew what they were about. 

  • Lilyperez55

    I am twenty years old n I undersand why they would say that children should not read it. My ten year old cousin wants to read catching fir because he finished THG but I wont let him borrow it because I believe he is too young to read it. The books deal with the topic if suicide and the books are emotionally draining. Katniss wants to die and trys to kill herself and talks about ways to do it. I believe its fine for 14 n up. But they have adult contents. For sure there is no sexual content. But other topics are for a older audience

    • Clove

      I’ve read all the books and im only 11, my mom read it first then she let me read it…. 14 and up is a little extreme. Maybe 10 and up……

    • Dakota_claire

      I disagree. If parents are focusing on the violence of the book, it’s obvious that they’ve probably only read the back cover and summaries of these books. If you haven’t read them, it can be easy to misjudge the premise of this series. If you do read them, you can understand why Suzanne wrote them and the morals. I think it should be 9-14 and up, depending on the parent. I’m 11. 

  • I<3THG

    Ok let me tell you I once read a book as a 6th grader called Friction. That book is way more explicit than the THG. The main character saw her teacher’s *cough cough* on a camping trip, saw him kissing his girlfriend and described all this in full detail. That book should be banned, not THG. Trust me I didn’t focus on the rare nakedness in CF or the violence in the trilology. I focused on the moral of the story and what obstacles Katniss had to overcome.

  • Natalie

    This is ridiculous. I mean yes the books are violent but they have a meaning to them. Even when I asked my grandma about them she thought they were violent but she said the point of the book is not the violence but the story behind it. She said that the book had a very stronge message to them. I mean I may only be 12 but I understand that this book is not about it’s violence. And anyways parents should be controlling what their child reads. The point is these books have a great message to them and if parents don’t want their kids to read them, then don’t let them.

    • Clove

      That’s ridiculous!! Im 11 and i read the trilogy!

  • Ilovepeetamellark<3

    This is stupid, ok, the books are maybe a bit old for some, but by the age of 10 or 11 kids know what violence, prostitution and war are. They know it’s wrong. My younger brother (12) read them, and he was fine with it, and it only really hints at sexuality, if there’s any at all. I’m 14 and all I can say to the concerned people out there is that we’re ok!!! Stop wrapping us up in bubble wrap, and if you’re really concerned, discuss it with your child I’m sure they won’t mind. It’s a WAR book after all of course it has violence.
    God, some people -_-

  • Berrymayiar

    I love that book

  • Soryane13

    I understand parents concern but removing it from the shelves isn’t the solution. We fought for our rights of opinion, our freedom to express ourselves. I can’t agree with censure or worse for those books.
    I agree with most of the comments here : parents have to exerce parental control. The child age isn’t really the matter for that question, it’s the maturity of the child that would make me choose (or not) to let him/her read the books. THG contains lots of great messages and morality.

  • Christian

    I  saw the movie and I’m 10 years old. This thing about violence and stuff isn’t right. These people are right it all has a good meaning and a message to it. I personally think that it’s really good. I want to know what other people think about my comment. So when you’re done reading about everybody else’s comment please just scroll down and let me know if you agree with me. Thanks for reading my comment. BYE!!!!

  • Callista

    I read the first book when I was 10. Then again, I was a remarkably advanced reader, but really, I think the only issue with younger kids reading it is that the actual content might be a bit confusing. But I also agree with Laurel Runesmith in regards to Twilight. People don’t care that Bella is the epitome of pathetic, setting the example for girls that happiness=boyfriend. Not to mention Bella’s necrophelia. Or the fact that the book contains stuff far more sexual than anything in THG. If people find the stuff with Finnick to be bad- so be it. But do some people think it’s better than sugar-coating the world? 

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