October 4th – 10th is Banned Books Week. For each day of Banned Books Week, TBR Books is featuring a banned book that we have available in our store. Today’s banned book is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Ender’s Game
Written by Orson Scott Card and published in 1985, Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel that takes place in a future in which humans are at war with an alien species. Children, including the main character, nicknamed Ender, are trained from a young age to fight through games. Ender attends a military academy, and the book explores the real-world consequences of war and destruction of civilizations.
Translated into 34 languages, Ender’s Game is considered to be a modern science fiction classic. It has multiple sequels.
The book has been banned for violence and references to child sexual abuse. The book has also been criticized for lacking cultural sensitivity and perpetuating stereotypes including racism, ableism, and homophobia.
In 1999, it was challenged due to sexual content, violence, and language.
In 2000, it was challenged at a school in Texas due to a parent’s claim that it contained obscenity, offensive language, and violence.
In 2012, a South Carolina teacher reportedly lost his job after reading Ender’s Game to his students along with Agatha Christie’s Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case and Victoria McKearnan’s Devil’s Paintbox. The accusation was that the material was pornographic, although it is unclear if the objection was actually to rough language in the books or if the teacher may have read additional offensive material from the internet. Orson Scott Card’s theory was that the inappropriate material was read from the internet, not his book, and that his book was also being targeted because of his religion.
There had been calls to boycott the 2013 film based on the book because of the author’s outspoken views against gay marriage. In 2012, he was still an anti-gay activist. Reportedly, Card wrote in an op-ed in 2008 that “marriage only has one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down.” His response to the calls to boycott was that “the gay marriage issue becomes moot” since it had just been legalized. Still, his opinions opinions and activism around gay marriage affected his popularity.
In 2023, the book was banned in two districts in Florida (St. John’s County School District and Collier County Public Schools) for political content, violence, and LGBTQ+ issues.
In 2024, the book was banned in Southeast Warren Community School District in Iowa. It was also banned at a school in Colorado because of “LGBTQIA+ representation, descriptions of drug/alcohol use, profanity, violence, false claims of illegal obscenity for minors, and religious views they disliked.”
Other attempts at censoring this book have occurred in Georgia, Oregon, and South Carolina.
Six other books written by Orson Scott Card have been banned in the US:
- Ender’s Shadow
- Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
- Shadow of the Hegemon
- Speaker for the Dead
- The Treasure Box
- Xenocide
This brief review written in 2021 discusses the complicated legacy of Ender’s Game.
At the end of Banned Books Week, you’ll be able to find all of this week’s book descriptions on the 2026 Banned Books Week page.
No AI was used in the making of this post, and all sources should be linked. Please let us know if anything is missing.
Leave a Reply