Book banning efforts are at an all-time high in the US. The American Library Association, which tracks book challenges across the country, recorded 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022 – nearly twice the amount recorded in 2021.
Many of the books targeted by challenges feature LGBT+ characters or address issues such as racism.
This is reflected in the ALA’s list of the 100 most challenged books between 2010 and 2019, as well as its yearly most challenged books lists. The same goes for a list compiled last year by CBS, rounding up the 50 most challenged books in America, based on data supplied by PEN America.
Here are 20 of the most commonly challenged books below, along with links to purchase them from independent bookstores. It is not an exhaustive list, but rather a mere samples of the books whose presence in schools and libraries has been put into question.
Please do feel free to peruse the links above, and – to borrow from what John Green said in an interview on this topic with The Independent — “read broadly, and read boldly.”
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X Kendi and Jason Reynolds
Beyond Magenta: Transgender and Nonbinary Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Looking For Alaska by John Green
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman, illustrated by Laura Cornell
Melissa by Alex Gino
This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
I Am Jazzby Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas
And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, illustrated by Henry Cole
All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M Johnson
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
