Banned Bayou Book of the Month

A banned book a month for Bayou Book Girl!

****update****
September 3, 2016

Obviously, I am VERY behind on this list.  I have several of the books ready to read, I have no excuse other than being busy and working on other things.  Hopefully I can work out a schedule to read more than I have been, and actually keep to the books I have planned, but when a good book comes around I just can help but to read it!
~~bayougirl

Planning ahead, let's do this the Witchy Way and use Halloween as the New Year!  Over the next year, follow (and join in if you want) as I read and review the following books.  I'm leaving the comments open for any who want to chime in on their reviews, to say hello, or to recommend another list, page, or book.  These are all banned books, maybe next go round we can get together another theme.

November 2015: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; by Sherman Alexie

     I started reading this one a little bit early, because I'm a go-getter like that.  On the other hand, I have books I've been reading for months if not years- I just can't finish them.  But onto the review:  This book (not to be redundant of just make a pun), is about an Indian kid who writes about his life.  He's 14, draws cartoons and lives on the reservation.  He's also got hydrocephalus, which is a pretty serious disorder better know as "water on the brain".  He's living in poverty, just like everyone else there, alcoholics galore around the reservation, and all but one kids bullies him.  He decides to go to a white school outside the reservation.  His troubles range there from being able to get there (some days has to walk or no one has the gas to take him) to a girl he's cute on.  If I tell too much I'll be a spoiler, but he has to learn (and show others) his own self even despite the tragedies of loss, desperation and poverty.  It's a really good tale of finding the best in yourself and what's around even when things are bad.  Reasons it got banned: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs, alcohol and smoking, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence and "depictions of bullying".  Why?  I guess because no teenager is ever exposed to these things and won't know about things like masturbation, sex or smoking when they're grown.

December 2015: The Golden Compass; by Philip Pullman

January 2016: The Perks of Being a Wallflower; by Stephen Chbosky

February 2016: Beloved; by Toni Morrison

March 2016: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; by Mildred D. Taylor

April 2016: Summer of My German Soldier; by Bette Greene

May 2016: The Color Purple; by Alice Walker

June 2016: And Tango Makes Three; by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

July 2016: Blood and Chocolate; by Annette Curtis Klause

August 2016: Bridge to Terabithia; by Katherine Paterson

September 2016: To Kill a Mockingbird; by Harper Lee

October 2016: The Chocolate War; by Robert Cormier
Freeforall Month:  I know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Maya Angelou