Research Guides: Banned Books Week: Banned Books

Top 10 Challenged Books of 2023

"ALA documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship in 2023—a 65% surge over 2022 numbers—as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources. Pressure groups focused on public libraries in addition to targeting school libraries. The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023."

"Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023." Banned & Challenged Books. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10. Accessed 23 Sept 2024.

Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe
Call Number: PN6727.K655 G46
ISBN: 9781549304002
Publication Date: 2019-05-28
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

"In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography 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 fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere"
All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
Call Number: HQ76.27.A37 J644
ISBN: 9780374312718
Publication Date: 2020-04-28
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

"In a series of personal essays, journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. 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."
This Book Is Gay by James Dawson; David Levithan (Introduction by)
Call Number: HQ76.26.D39
ISBN: 9781492617822
Publication Date: 2015-06-16
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit

"There's a long-running joke that, after coming out as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex person, you should receive a membership card and instruction manual. This is that instruction manual. You're welcome. Inside this revised and updated edition, 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 candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBTQIA+ also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations."
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Call Number: PS3553.H3469P47
ISBN: 9780671027346
Publication Date: 1999-02-01
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, rape, drugs, profanity.

A coming of age novel about Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. He deals with the usual teen problems, but also with the suicide of his best friend.
Flamer by Mike Curato (Illustrator)
Call Number: PN6727.C873 F53
ISBN: 9781250756145
Publication Date: 2020-09-01
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit.

In the summer between middle school and high school, Aiden Navarro is away at camp. While there, he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can not stop thinking about), and he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749B55
ISBN: 9780307278449
Publication Date: 2007-05-08
Challenged for: rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI content

It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove -- a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others -- who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Revised Edition) by Jesse Andrews
Call Number: PS3601.N373 M38
ISBN: 9781419720130
Publication Date: 2015-06-16
Tied with Tricks
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity

It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he's figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl. 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. Includes a discussion with Jesse Andrews and an annotated excerpt from the screenplay!
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Call Number: POP PZ7.H7745Tr
ISBN: 9781481498241
Publication Date: 2017-01-24
Tied with Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQIA+ content

Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family, and love.
Let's Talk about It by Erika Moen; Matthew Nolan
ISBN: 9781984893147
Publication Date: 2021-03-09
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQIA+ content
How do you find the answers to all the questions you have about yourself, about your identity, and about your body? Let's Talk About It provides a comprehensive, thoughtful, well-researched graphic novel guide to everything you need to know.

Covering relationships, friendships, gender, sexuality, anatomy, body image, safe sex, sexting, jealousy, rejection, sex education, and more, Let's Talk About It is the go-to handbook for every teen, and the first in graphic novel form.
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Call Number: POP PZ7.5.M43Sol
ISBN: 9780786851720
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, rape

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape.

Top 13 Challenged Books of 2022

"ALA documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago. The unparalleled number of reported book challenges in 2022 nearly doubles the 729 book challenges reported in 2021."

Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe
Call Number: PN6727.K655 G46
ISBN: 9781549304002
Publication Date: 2019-05-28
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography 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 fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.

Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
Call Number: HQ76.27.A37 J644
ISBN: 9780374312718
Publication Date: 2020-04-28
In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749B55
ISBN: 9780307278449
Publication Date: 2007-05-08
Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit.
Flamer by Mike Curato (Illustrator)
Call Number: PN6727.C873 F53
ISBN: 9781627796415
Publication Date: 2020-09-01
Award-winning author and artist Mike Curato draws on his own experiences in Flamer, his debut graphic novel, telling a difficult story with humor, compassion, and love.
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Call Number: POP PZ7.G8233Lo
ISBN: 9780525475064
Publication Date: 2005-03-03
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called “The Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A modern classic, this stunning debut marked #1 bestselling author John Green’s arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Call Number: PS3553.H3469P47
ISBN: 9781982110994
Publication Date: 2019-09-24
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Call Number: PS3605.V57 L39
ISBN: 9781616202620
Publication Date: 2018-04-03
Mike Muñoz is a young Mexican American not too many years out of high school--and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew. Though he tries time and again to get his foot on the first rung of that ladder to success, he can't seem to get a break. But then things start to change for Mike, and after a raucous, jarring, and challenging trip, he finds he can finally see the future and his place in it.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; Ellen Forney (Illustrator)
Call Number: POP PZ7.A382Ab
ISBN: 9780316013680
Publication Date: 2007-09-12
Consistently challenged since its publication in 2007 for acknowledging issues such as poverty, alcoholism, and sexuality, this National Book Award winner was challenged in school curriculums because of profanity and situations that were deemed sexually explicit.
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
Call Number: PZ7.P4255 Ou 2015
ISBN: 9781467742023
Publication Date: 2015-09-01
Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
ISBN: 9781635575576
Publication Date: 2020-06-25
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different people: one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Call Number: POP PZ7.H7745Cra
ISBN: 9781416995135
Publication Date: 2010-06-15
Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter, gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father, Kristina disappears and Bree takes her place. Bree is the exact opposite of Kristina. Through a boy, Bree meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul - her life.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Revised Edition) by Jesse Andrews
Call Number: PS3601.N373 M38
ISBN: 9781419720130
Publication Date: 2015-06-16
It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he's figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl. 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. Includes a discussion with Jesse Andrews and an annotated excerpt from the screenplay!
This Book Is Gay by James Dawson; David Levithan (Introduction by); Juno Dawson
Call Number: HQ76.26.D39
ISBN: 9781492617839
Publication Date: 2015-06-02
There's a long-running joke that, after coming out as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex person, you should receive a membership card and instruction manual. This is that instruction manual. You're welcome. Inside this revised and updated edition, 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 candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBTQIA+ also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations.

"Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022." Banned Books. ALA. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10. Accessed 2 Oct. 2023.

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Top 10 Challenged Books of 2023

Top 13 Challenged Books of 2022