Banned Books Week

Censorship attempts took center stage again in the 2024 report. The number of unique titles targeted for censorship surged by 65% from 2022 to 2023, reaching the highest levels ever documented by ALA, according to the report.

ALA recorded 1,247 attempts to censor materials and services at libraries, schools, and universities in 2023. Of the 4,240 unique titles that were challenged or banned in 2023, here are the top 10 most frequently challenged:

1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

2. All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

3. This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit

4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, rape, drugs, profanity

5. Flamer by Mike Curato
Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

6. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion) content

TIE 7. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQIA+ content

TIE 8. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity

9. Let's Talk About It by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQIA+ content

10. Sold by Patricia McCormick
Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, rape

LIst and reasons banned compiled from the American Library Association

1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

pub. 2017 [2017-18, 2020-21]

Read from Syracuse University Libraries

Reasons Banned:

• 2017-2018, 2020-2021 - banned and challenged for profanity, violence, "promoting an anti-police message', drug use, and sexual references. Challenges argue that the novel promotes the indoctrination of a social agenda.

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

pub. 2007 [201-14, 2017-18, 2021]

Read from Syracuse University Libraries

Reasons Banned:

• 2017-2018, 2021 - banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, use of a dereogatory term, violence, gambling, underage drinking, religious viewpoint, portrayal of poverty, and sexuality. 

3. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

pub. 1970 [2006, 2013-2014, 2020-21; still banned]

Read from Syracuse University Libraries

Reasons Banned:

• 2020-2021 - Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit. 

4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

pub. 2014 [2015, 2019, 2021; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

• 2021 - Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.
• 2019 - 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.
• 2015 - anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other ("wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints")

5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

pub. 1960 [2009, 2011, 2017, 2020; still banned]

Read from Syracuse University Libraries

Reasons Banned:

• 2020 - Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a 'white savior' character, and its perception of the Black experience
• 2017 - Challenged and banned for violence and use of the N-Word

6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

pub. 1937 [2001, 2003-04, 2020; still banned]

Read from Syracuse University Libraries

Reasons Banned:

• 2020 - Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students

7. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

pub. [2015-16, 2018; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

• 2015 - 2016, 2018 - Challenged for including LGBTQIA+ and was speculated to have sexually explicit content based on the cover. The cover in particular was challenged for displaying an image of two boys kissing which was thought to “condone public displays of affection.”

8. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

pub. 2007 [2012, 2017-18; still banned]

Read from Syracuse University Libraries

Reasons Banned:

• 2018 - banned, challenged, and restricted for addressing teen suicide
• 2017 - This YA novel was challenged and banned in multiple school districts because it discusses suicide.

9. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

pub. 2014 [2016, 2018]

Read from Syracuse University Libraries

Reasons Banned:

• 2018 - banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and certain illustrations
• 2016 - challenged because it includes LGBT characters, drug use and profanity, and it was considered sexually explicit with mature themes

10. Looking for Alaska by John Green

pub. 2005 [2012-13, 2015-16; still banned] 

Read from Syracuse University Libraries

Reasons Banned:

• 2016 - challenged for a sexually explicit scene that may lead a student to “sexual experimentation”
• 2015 - offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group

Special Mentions

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

pub. 2019 [2021; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

• 2021 - Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

pub. 2018 [2021; still banned]

Reasons Banned: 

• 2021 - Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit

List and reasons banned compiled from the American Library Association

1. Melissa by Alex Gino

Previously published as George until April 2022 [On ALA’s Top 10 List 2016-21]

Melissa, previously published as George until April 2022, is a children's novel about a young transgender girl written by American author Alex Gino. 

Reasons Banned: 

• 2016-2021 - Challenged, banned and restricted annually for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint and traditional family structure, containing a transgender character, and not reflecting “the values of our community” among other points. Challengers argued that “schools and libraries should not “put books in a child’s hand that require discussion.”

2. Sex Is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg, illustrated by Fiona Smyth

pub. 2015 [2017, 2019, 2021; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

• 2019 - challenged, banned, and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content; for discussing gender identity and sex education; and for concerns that the title and illustrations were “inappropriate” 
• 2017 - challenged because it addresses sex education and is believed to lead children to “want to have sex or ask questions about sex.”

3.  Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin

pub. 2018 [2020-21; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

• 2020-2021 - Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police views.

4. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

pub. 2020 [2020; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

• 2020 - Banned and challenged because of the author's public statements and because of claims that the book contains "selective storytelling incidents" and does not encompass racism against all people

5. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, illustrated by Henry Cole

pub. 2005 [2006-10, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

• 2019 - challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content
• 2017 - challenged and labeled because it features a same-sex relationship

6. Drama by Raina Telgemeier

pub. 2012 [2014, 2016-19; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

• 2016-2019: Repeatedly challenged for LGBTQIA+ content. Challenges also voice concerns that the books goes against “family values/morals”, is sexually explicit, confuses young readers, and was considered to have an offensive political viewpoint.

7.  A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller

pub. 2018 [2018-19; still banned]

 Reasons Banned:

•  2018-2019 - challenged and vandalized for LGBTQIA+ content, religious and political viewpoints, for concerns that it is “designed to pollute the morals of its readers,” and for not including a content warning

8. This Day In June by Gayle E. Pitman, illustrated by Kristyna Litten

pub. 2013 [2018; still banned]

Reasons Banned:

•  2018- challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content

9. I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas

pub. 2014 [2015-17, 2019]

Reasons Banned:

• 2015-2019 - challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content, portraying a transgender character, containing offensive viewpoints, addressing gender indentity, and confronting a topic that is “sensitive, controversial, and politically charged.”

10. Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey

pub. 1997-2015 [2002, 2004-05, 2012-13, 2018, 2021]

Reasons Banned:

• 2018 - series was challenged because it was perceived as encouraging disruptive behavior, while Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot was challenged for including a same-sex couple

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
21. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
22. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
35. Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
37. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
38. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
39. A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
41. Schindler’s List, by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton
43. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
44. Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
46. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
51. My Antonia, by Willa Cather
52. Howards End, by E.M. Forster
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
54. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz, by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom!, by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor
62. Tender Is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. Orlando, by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
65. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe
66. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
68. Light in August, by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James
70. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
71. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
72. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time, by Ernest Hemingway
78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias, by Gertrude Stein
79. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise, by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
86. Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad
87. The Bostonians, by Henry James
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather
90. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
91. This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
92. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles
94. Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis
95. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling
96. The Beautiful and the Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread, by E.M. Forster
99. Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis
100. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie

(Source: American Library Association, 2011)