Banned/Challenged: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian tale of starkly misogynist future theocratic America.  Fertility rates have plummeted, so women who are able to conceive, called handmaids, are assigned to upper-class couples to bear them children.  Infertile women are assigned menial roles such as cooks, housemaids and the like.  Reading, birth control, personal property, money, and the like are all forbidden to women. 

The book was banned by a Judson, Texas judge for myriad complaints including claims that the book was "sexually explicit" and "offensive to Christians".  In 2006 this ban was overturned.

Numerous other challenges have been made around the country, typically on claims  that the book is "offensive to Christians", that it is "sexually explicit", contains "graphic violence", and even that it is "morally corrupt". 

The Handmaid's Tale is not light reading.  It's meant to shock, to wake the reader up.  Written in 1985, The Handmaid's Tale is still relevant nearly 35 years later.  Perhaps that, more than any of the other claims, is why it is so often on the lists of challenged/banned books.

Banned and Challenged Books at Inkopelli!

This year's Banned Books Week is September 21-27, but here at Inkopelli we're celebrating banned and challenged books all month long!

Do you know how many of your favorite books have been challenged or banned in the US or even around the world?  We think you'd be surprised.  Some of your childhood favorites are likely on the list.

John Steinbeck

Right here in Kern County, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was not only banned, it was burned.   Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye was challenged, but retained in Kern High School District in Bakersfield.

Come to Inkopelli and see our large selection of books which have been challenged or banned.  Celebrate your freadom!