Banned book lists make me laugh. Harry Potter has been at the top of most banned book lists for a few years now. "The Deathly Hallows" wasn't on the latest list of most challenged books from the American Library Association for 2006, but he is at the top of the most challenged list for books released from 2000-2005.
To make this list, someone, somewhere has to file a complaint asking for the removal of a book from a school library, bookstore, classroom, anywhere an innocent child might be tainted by a questionable depiction of a character or setting.
A story about penguins hatching an egg and raising the chick was the most challenged book of 2006, according to the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom.
The reason it's so offensive: the penguins both are male. Homosexual overtones are exposed. Paranoid parents panic. Book banners line up outside schools from West Virginia to Nevada.
Not that anyone actually reads these books. They overhear about their controversial content, usually at church, then fly into a frenzy to have them removed.
Parents shoud be happy if their kids are reading anything at all and stop limiting their choices.
But it also makes me wonder if Harry and Ron ever took the friendship to the "next level" if that would alter their standing among the religious right. They are already among the most hated characters in modern literature by Christian standards. Stories about witches and wizards, monsters and curses apparently don't fit into the Christian mold. Then again, if that were the criteria, most of the Old Testament would have to be edited. Another discussion for another day.

Here are the “Most Challenged Books of the 21st Century (2000-2005),” also from the American Library
Association.
1. “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling
2. “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier
3. “Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
4. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
5. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou
6. “Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers
7. “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harris
8. “Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz
9. “Captain Underpants” series by Dav Pilkey
10. “Forever” by Judy Blume

Here are the “10 Most Challenged Books of 2006,” as listed by the American Library Association’s Office for
Intellectual Freedom.
1. “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
2. “Gossip Girls” series by Cecily Von Ziegesar
3. “Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
4. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler
5. “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
6. “Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz
7. “Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher
8. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky
9. “Beloved” by Toni Morrison
10. “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier