2.  Books are usually challenged for good
intentions
 To protect others, especially children
 If the material is considered to be
sexually explicit
 If the material has offensive language
 If the material considered unsuited to
any age group

3.  Susie Salmon is fourteen year old girl
 Was raped and murdered by her neighbor
in a structure that he built in a corn field
 The police tell her family that she is dead
 Police eventually give up on investigation
and neighbor is never caught
 At the same time Susie is watching
everything from heaven
 The neighbor is finally killed when falling off
the side of a cliff when trying to take
advantage of another girl

4.  Questions some aspects of religion
› Talks about heaven
› Is told from Susie Salmons heaven
› Can confuse and make children reconsider
their beliefs
› Children might not understand what the
author was trying to tell us when describing
Susie’s heaven

5.  Explicit Content
› Swearing
› Rape of a teenager
› Sexual abuse
› Violence

6.  Is too mature of a book for students in
middle school
 Has a deeper meaning that younger
children might not understand yet
 Shows that the man committing the
crime doesn’t ever get caught
 Shows how the family breaks apart

7.  Parents don’t want their children reading
about it at such a young age
 The movie they made of it is rated PG13
 Students are not 13 until 8th grade
 Book deals with hope and healing on a
deeper level that middle school students
might not understand yet

8.  “Flora Hernandez. Delaware, 1963. Eight.
He’d only wanted to touch her, but she
screamed.. A small girl for her age. Her
left sock and shoe were found later. The
body, unrecovered. The bones lay in the
earthen basement of an old apartment
house.” (Sebold 181)

9.  In March of 2008 a parents from
Massachusetts tried to get The Lovely
Bones taken away from the school
library.
 She said: “They say this book is about
healing and hope, which it’s not. The
guy committing the crime doesn’t get
punished, giving children the wrong
impression of doing bad things.”

10.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhyb
YrLcUvA

12.  "About Banned & Challenged Books." American Library Association. © 1997–2013
American Library Association, 2010. Web. 11 Feb. 2013.
 Globe Staff. "Parent Wants Book out of Library." Boston Globe. WALTHAM, 9 Mar. 2008.
Web. 28 Jan. 2013.
<http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/09/parent_wants_book_out_of_li
brary/?page=full>.
 Jide. "Dangerous Books." Dangerous Books. Wordpress, 1 May 2008. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.
<http://dangerousbooks.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/the-lovely-bones/>.
 Stephens, Taniqua. "Banned Books: The Lovely Bones." Business Heritage Clarksville.
Banned Books, 15 Sept. 2010. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.
<http://businessclarksville.com/2010/09/15/banned-books-the-lovely-bones-15307/>.