Leading up to Banned Books Week 2012, ALA will highlight one book from its new timeline of banned and challenged books each day. Today we feature the year 1999 and “Fallen Angels,” by Walter Dean Myers.
In 1999, “Fallen Angels” was removed from the Laton, CA Unified School District because the novel about the Vietnam War contains violence and profanity. The same year, it was removed as required reading in the Livonia, MI public schools because it was found to contain “too many swear words.” Set amidst the horror of war, this young adult novel confronts the realities of violence and racism in 1960s America and in the military. “Fallen Angels” received the 1988 Coretta Scott King Award, for outstanding African American culture and universal human values.
For more information about Banned Books Week, please visit www.ala.org/bbooks.
