The American Library Association condemns censorship and works to ensure free access to information. Every year, the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles a list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from media stories and voluntary reports sent to OIF from communities across the U.S.
More information on this subject can be read through this post by ALA. You may also be interested in our Banned Books collection.
Some of these challenged books are available on the archive and have been curated for you :
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, for “its effect on any young people who would read it,” and for concerns that it was sexually explicit and biased
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones”
And Tango Makes Three written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated by Henry Cole
Reason: Challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content
Skippyjon Jones series written and illustrated by Judy Schachner
Reason: challenged for depicting stereotypes of Mexican culture
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
This critically acclaimed, multigenerational novel was challenged and banned because it includes sexual violence and was thought to “lead to terrorism” and “promote Islam.”
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”)
Reasons: violence and other (“graphic images”)
Reasons: nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
Reasons: religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence
Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
Reasons: gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint. Additional reasons: “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” “graphic depictions”
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “contains controversial issues”
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation”
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
Reason: political viewpoint, racism, violence
Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: unsuited for age group, violence
The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit
ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, insensitivity, offensive language, occult/satanic, violence
My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, nudity, racism, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit
Reasons: religious viewpoint, violence
Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: offensive language and sexually explicit
It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, by Robie H. Harris
Reasons: abortion, homosexuality, nudity, religious viewpoint, sex education, unsuited to age group
Reasons: religious viewpoint
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint
Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit
Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexual content, being unsuited to age group