Every year during Banned Books Week (September 18-24 this year), the American Library Association (ALA) celebrates the freedom to read by recognizing books that have been challenged, censored, and banned in libraries and schools.
Check out the top ten most challenged books—and why they were challenged—from the last year (compiled from data from the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom).
Celebrate your freedom to read
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? It contains LGBTQIA+ content and has been considered to have sexually explicit images.
Description: This autobiography by Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
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Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? It contains LGBTQIA+ content and has been considered to be sexually explicit.
Description: Author Jonathan Evison takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young man determined to achieve the American dream of happiness and prosperity—who just so happens to find himself along the way.
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All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? It contains LGBTQIA+ content and profanity and has been considered to be sexually explicit.
Description: From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.
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Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? It features depictions of abuse and has been considered to be sexually explicit.
Description: New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive.
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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? This modern classic uses profanity and is considered anti-police.
Description: After witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? Mainly for its use of profanity and sexual references, but also because of the author's inappropriate behavior.
Description: Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? The content was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women.
Description: On the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he's figured it out. His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg's mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg's entire life.
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The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? Morrison's well-known novel is considered sexually explicit and includes depictions of child sexual abuse.
Description: Eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove, an African-American girl in an America whose love for blonde, blue-eyed children can devastate all others, prays for her eyes to turn blue, so that she will be beautiful, people will notice her, and her world will be different.
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This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? This title provides sexual education and includes LGBTQIA+ content.
Description: Inside you'll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask: from sex to politics, hooking up to stereotypes, coming out, and more. This uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBT includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums.
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Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
Why was it challenged, banned, and/or restricted? It contains LGBTQIA+ content and is considered to be sexually explicit.
Description: Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference.
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