Banned in a Maryland County: The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is number four on the American Library Association's list of "most frequently challenged books" from 1990 to 2000. And the book banning hasn't stopped; a Maryland county has removed the title from the school's curriculum because the book about bullying had "vulgar language including homophobic slurs." Right, good thing we're keeping that out of the hands of teenagers who would never use such language themselves. But they're probably too busy going to the malt shop and building a float for the big homecoming game anyway to read.

The irony is that the book is still in the school and public libraries and that since the controversy broke, demand for the title shot up so much that the country library system bought more copies, bringing the total number circulating to 51.