1. ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle. Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. Reasons: Homosexuality
3. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer. Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. The Color Purple Alice Walker. Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

• And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
• His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
• TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
• Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
• Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
• Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
• Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
• Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper

Don't wait for September. Start reading celebrating your freedom to read now! Read one or all the top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2006. Number one on this list, challenged for promoting homosexuality, is Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell's award-winning And Tango Makes Three, about two male penguins parenting an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple. Also on the list are The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler; two books by Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye and Beloved; Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher; and The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier.

Display your support for the freedom to read with ALA's Banned Books Week materials.

Take the time to reflect that the First Amendment, intellectual freedom, and the freedom to read should not be taken for granted.

Join the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, and the Newberry Library in Pioneer Plaza, at Michigan Ave. and the Chicago River, on Saturday, September 29, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., for the Banned Books Week Read-Out! Local Chicago celebrities join several acclaimed authors to read passages from their favorite banned and "challenged" books. Authors scheduled to appear include Chris Crutcher, Robie Harris, Carolyn Mackler, Peter Parnell, and Justin Richardson.

Organize your own Banned Books Read-Out! at your school, public library, or favorite bookstore.

Mount these Web badges on your blogs and home pages to help spread the word about BBW.

Join IFAN, the Intellectual Freedom Action Network, a grassroots, ad hoc group of volunteers who have identified themselves as willing to come forward in support of the freedom to read in censorship controversies in their communities.

Dedicate one day's programming on your National Public Radio (NPR) station to Banned Books Week. For example, "Today's programming on [the name of the radio station] is made possible in part by [your name], who is celebrating this Banned Books Week by re-reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings [or another favorite banned or challenged book] or by accomplishing some other activity related to the week.

Reread one of your favorite books. Chances are, it's on the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.

Write or call your representatives and let them know you want them to protect your freedom to read and your privacy.

Join or support an intellectual freedom advocate, such as the Freedom to Read Foundation, the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, or the Intellectual Freedom Round Table.

BBW is a celebration of our freedom to read, to seek, hold, receive, and disseminate ideas, even if they are unorthodox or unpopular. Help spread the word! Encourage your friends and colleagues to celebrate their freedom to read. It's one of our most important democratic freedoms!

The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children's books. The controversy was first reported by Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine.

On electronic mailing lists like Librarian.net, dozens of literary blogs and pages on the social-networking site LiveJournal, teachers, authors and school librarians took sides over the book. Librarians from all over the country, including Missoula, Mont.; upstate New York; Central Pennsylvania; and Portland, Ore., weighed in, questioning the role of the librarian when selecting — or censoring, some argued — literature for children.

"This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn't have the children in mind," Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. "How very sad." The book has already been banned from school libraries in a handful of states in the South, the West and the Northeast, and librarians in other schools have indicated in the online debate that they may well follow suit. Indeed, the topic has dominated the discussion among librarians since the book was shipped to schools.

Pat Scales, a former chairwoman of the Newbery Award committee, said that declining to stock the book in libraries was nothing short of censorship. "The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole," she said. "That's what censors do — they pick out words and don't look at the total merit of the book."

Last April, the Board of Education in Limestone County, Ala., opted to ban Chris Crutcher’sWhale Talk from all its school libraries. In Crutcher’s book, a young, biracial girl undergoes a therapy session in which she acts out the role of her racist stepfather, who often calls her, among other things, a "stupid black bitch." A parent of a local high-school student filed a complaint, on the grounds that, though the book "is talking about teamwork and dealing with racism," students who read the book "would be more likely to use the words every day." Upon consideration, a review committee of parents and staff, along with the school superintendent, recommended that it be kept in the school. The school board, however, overruled them, voting instead to ban it. "The truth is, we’re not living in an age that is markedly more enlightened than it was 30-40 years ago," says Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association.

When she heard about the book-banning in Limestone County, Miranda Ball, director of Lawrence County Library, which serves 34,000 people in nearby Moulton, Ala., decided on the perfect theme for her teen summer-reading group: banned books. For her "Readiculous" program, she gathered a group of teens and 20-somethings, stocked up on To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, J.K. Rowling’s oeuvre and other commonly banned books, and had kids take their pick. "Then we would all talk about why the book was banned—and if the kids thought it should be banned," says Ball. "None of the kids thought their book should be banned. They all said 'That’s stupid.'"

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"People are amazed to hear that a school board would ban Catcher in the Rye or Of Mice and Men," says Gorman. "Most parents worry about people not reading, not what they’re reading. The idea that books are being banned is sort of shocking to people."