Author: J.D. Salinger
Publisher & Date: Black Bay Books, 30 Jan 2001
Page Count: 288 pages
ISBN: 978-0316769174
Age/Reading Level: 9-18/Grades 4-12
Representation: Mental illness representation
Other Information: Although the Lexile and ATOS scores for the book place it as appropriate for younger grade school students (ages 9-13), most teachers and parents agree that the subject matter is more appropriate for older grade school students (ages 14-18).
Book Information
Anyone who has read J.D. Salinger’s New Yorker stories–particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme With Love and Squalor–will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is full of children. The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield.
Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.
There are many voices in this novel: children’s voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden’s voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.
Challenges & Bans
This book is frequently challenged by groups that view it as “immoral and obscene” due to the inclusions of: vulgar language, references to premarital sex and prostitution, alcohol abuse, lying, and depictions of mental health.
Interesting Challenge Note: In 1981, The Catcher in the Rye was the #1 most banned book in American school districts, while also being the second most taught book in the country.
Awards & Accolades
1952 National Book Award – Fiction (finalist), Named one of the 100 best English-language novels by both Modern Library and Time magazine
The AACAP “Catchers in the Rye” Award is a separate award named after the book, recognizing non-AACAP members for significant contributions to children’s mental health (advocacy, philanthropy, research, etc.), in honor of the novel’s theme of protecting children from harm and inspired by Holden Caulfield’s dream of saving kids.
