Expert: Brian Patterson - 8/8/2001

Question
This book was about 2 sides, the north and the south, the poor south and the rich north gangs.  It is like a modern Westside Story with the Jets and the Sharks.  My question is: WHY WAS THIS BOOK BANNED?  WHAT GROUPS OR INDIVIDUALS OPPOSED THE BOOK AND WHAT WAS THEIR RATIONALE FOR BANNNING IT?  WAS IT BANNED FROM SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES, OR BOOK STORES?  WHAT ISSUES WERE RAISED BY THE OPPOSING BOOK? I would really appreciate a quick response..thanks for you time..

Answer
Books get banned all the time, and it's not typically a universal ban. A book will make the banned list if a single school library refuses to carry it, or if an entire school system challenges it. Censorship is a serious issue, but people tend to blow book banning out of proportion.

On to The Outsiders. This book did make #38 in the ALA's top 100 banned books of 1990. I'm sure it was controversial long before 1990, but that's when the ALA took note of it. Problem with the ALA is that they don't tell you the specifics of where and when the book was challenged. I did find a mention of a specific challenge in Milwaukee, which probably reflect the reasoning the book was banned elsewhere. Both The Outsiders and That Was Then, This Is Now (also by S. E. Hutton) were challenged in South Milwaukee because "drug and alcohol abuse was common" in the novels and "virtually all the characters were from broken homes."

There you go. Makes you wonder what kind of time people have on their hands to try and keep kids from reading about broken homes. Anyway, hope this helps.