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what exactly are these "favorite banned books" from a list on Amazon.com?

http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Banned-Books/lm/3MZQQLUAAP50Z/ref=cm_lmt_dtpa_f_2_rdssss0?pf_rd_p=253462201&pf_rd_s=listmania-center&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=006440465X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1D9EB15JH2VNT6PCVEZZ so they've actually been banned?? why whould Harry Potter be banned?

Public Comments

1. They are bboks that have been banned over time for various reasons that Amazon recommends reading.
2. A lot of places have banned Harry Potter because they claim that it has to do with sorcery (sp?) and witchcraft. Many churches and private schools have banned students from reading it and many parents at different public schools have fought over whether or not it should be offered in public school libraries. A little silly if you ask me.
3. The American Library Association defines a banned book as one that has been successfully challenged (that is, removed from a shelf in a school or library). http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.cfm In the past one of most challenged (or certainly in the top ten) is Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (too depressing; in the newer versions Anne talks about her sexuality and criticizes her parents and other adults, etc.) In my opinion, much of the challenging is just ridiculous. For example, the children's book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak was challenged because "the wild rumpus" was too violent. A Caldecott winner (Caldecott is awarded for art in children's books) was challenged because a police officer was depicted as a pig. A recent Newbery book was pulled because the word "scotum" was in it. (It was written by a librarian.) I went to the web site you gave the URL for and laughed out loud for the comment about The Giver: "sexually explicit." There is no sexual activity described in that book at all. Jonas does take pills to suppress sexual feelings, but that comment is so subtle and understated in the book that many readers miss it altogether. Oh well. So far we are still able to get most books we want to read. I urge you to continue to read what you want. I go out of my way sometimes to read what is challenged just so the circulation numbers stay up. I'll stop now. This is obviously a hot issue for me.
4. Books are not banned in the U.S.A. They may be challenged and/or removed from certain school libraries and, less frequently, from specific public libraries. This has no impact on their retail availability and is not a national circumstance but, rather, one limited to a narrow (in every sense of the word) geographical area. I hate the whole thing but I really wish that we would stop using the word banned. It is misleading at best.