30 books you may be surprised to learn were challenged by censors

Freedom to Read Week, which takes place Feb. 26—March 4, 2017, highlights the importance of free speech, free expression and how censorship affects us all.

Here are 30 books you may be surprised to learn have battled attempts at censorship in Canada.

• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood for violence and offensive language
• ​Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson for offensive language
• The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling for satanism and witchcraft

• The Holy Bible for offensive language
• Star Wars: A New Hope by George Lucas for unknown reasons
• The Wars by Timothy Findley for sex and violence

• Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul for unknown reasons
• Essex County by Jeff Lemire for offensive language
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie for unknown reasons

• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess for unknown reasons
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson for sex
• His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman for sex, violence, offensive language, satanism and witchcraft

• The Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine for violence
• On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder for offensive language
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain for offensive language

• The Best of Drawn & Quarterly edited by Chris Oliveros for sex and violence
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes for offensive language
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee for offensive language

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger for offensive language
• Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro for offensive language
• The Giver by Lois Lowry for offensive language

• Princess on the Brink by Meg Cabot for sex and offensive language
• Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates for sex, violence and offensive language
• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler for unknown reasons

• The Diviners by Margaret Lawrence for sex and offensive language
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding for offensive language 
• Hold Fast by Kevin Major for unknown reasons

• Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker for offensive language
• Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar for unknown reasons
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck for offensive language and religious issues