This Banned Books Week we celebrate the fight against
censorship by giving you a glimpse at a few of our titles that have been
challenged the most times over the years.
Everyday this week we will post a new book with the reason it was
challenged. And all of these were
challenged within the last twenty years (so, not as far in the past as we would
like to believe).
We dedicate today’s Banned Books celebration
to Shade’s Children, published in 1997 by Garth Nix. This book features a futuristic dystopian world
where foreign beings called Overlords have taken over and decreed that no human
will live past age 14, at which time their organs are harvested to create
servants for the Overlords. The story
follows a group of teenagers who managed to escape from the prison-like dorms
and have been recruited by a mysterious man named Shade, the only adult to
survive the Overlord’ arrival, who uses the children
to attempt to overthrow the Overlords.
These teens must decide whom to trust in this hostile world where they’re
not meant to be alive, filled with war and betrayal, all the while just trying
to survive the trials of being a teenager, making friends, and burgeoning
feelings.
Reason for challenge: vulgarity and for being obscene.
-Amanda