The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
We learn about the Handmaid and her/his tale about the alien artifact that brings water back to the world.
Banned
1990 - California - Challenged as assignment at Rancho Cotati High School in Rohnert Park as "too explicit for students"
1992 - Iowa - Challenged yet retained in Waterloo schools for profanity, sexually explicit material, and "statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled"
1993 - Massachusetts - Removed from Chicopee High School English class reading list for sex and profanity
1998 - Washington - Challenged with six other titles in Richland high school English classes for being "poor-quality literature and stress suicide, illicit sex, violence, and hopelessness."
1999 - Florida - Challenged but retained on advanced placement reading list in Chamberlain High School in Tampa
2000 - Pennsylvania - Upper Moreland School District downgraded the book from "required" to "optional" on the summer reading list for eleventh graders due to "age-inappropriate" subject matter.
2001 - Texas - Challenged but retained in the Dripping Springs senior Advanced Placement English courses as an optional assignment. Sexual encounters in the book upset some parents.
2006 - Texas - A parent complained to Superintendent Ed Lyman of the Judson school district that the book was "sexually explicit and offensive to Christians" and asked it be removed from an Advanced Placement English curriculum. A committee of teachers, students, and parents recommended the book be retained. The superintendent banned the book against the committee's recommendations. The committee appealed to the school board, which overruled the superintendent and retained the book.
2012 - North Carolina - Parents complained the book was "detrimental to Christian values" and the book was banned for "sexually explicit, violently graphic and morally corrupt" and challenged as required reading for Page High School International Baccaluraeate and optional reading in Advance Placement courses at Grimsley High School.
Sources
Doyle, Robert P. Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read. ALA. 2014.
