American Library Association (ALA) - Read These Banned Books

The American Library Associations Office for Intellectual Freedom tracks challenges to library, school, and university materials and services. Here are the documented reasons why the books featured in this volume were challenged, censored, or banned.

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , Sherman Alexie

Reasons: profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author

1. The House of the Spirits , Isabel Allende

Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence, immoral, culturally insensitive, offensive language, occult-satanism, unsuited for age group, abortion

1. Speak , Laurie Halse Anderson

Reasons: political viewpoint, biased against male students, inclusion of rape and profanity

1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , Maya Angelou

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit

1. Thirteen Reasons Why , Jay Asher

Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group

1. The Handmaids Tale , Margaret Atwood

Reasons: profanity and vulgarity and sexual overtones

1. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic , Alison Bechdel

Reasons: violence, graphic images

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

Reasons: anti-police views, divisive language

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower , Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

1. The Kingdom of Little Wounds , Susann Cokal

Reasons: sexually explicit, violence, belittles women

1. The Hunger Games , Suzanne Collins

Reasons: sexually explicit, violence, unsuited to age group

1. This Book Is Gay , Juno Dawson, illustrated by Spike Gerrell

Reasons: LGBTQIA+ and sexual content, pure propaganda

1. Whale Talk , Chris Crutcher

Reasons: racism, offensive language

1. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America , Barbara Ehrenreich

Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

1. Lawn Boy , Jonathan Evison

Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, sexually explicit, promoting a political agenda

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close , Jonathan Safran Foer

Reason: sexually explicit

1. Dreaming in Cuban , Cristina Garca

Reasons: political viewpoint, sexually explicit

1. Melissa , Alex Gino

Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting the values of our community

1. Looking for Alaska , John Green

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group

1. Prince & Knight , Daniel Haack, illustrated by Stevie Lewis

Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content; for being a deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children with the potential to cause confusion, curiosity, and gender dysphoria; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time , Mark Haddon

Reasons: offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, profanity and atheism

1. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story , Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine , edited by Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, and Jake Silverstein

Reasons: political and historical viewpoint

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

Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, for a transgender character, and for confronting a topic that is sensitive, controversial, and politically charged

1. Crank , Ellen Hopkins

Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit

1. The Kite Runner , Khaled Hosseini

Reasons: sexual violence, religious viewpoint, and was thought to lead to terrorism and promote Islam

1. The Color of Earth , Kim Dong Hwa

Reasons: nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

1. All Boys Arent Blue , George M. Johnson

Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, sexually explicit

1. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out , Susan Kuklin

Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, sexually explicit, biased, and for its effect on any young people who would read it

1. Two Boys Kissing , David Levithan

Reason: LGBTQIA+ content, image of two boys kissing, condones public displays of affection

1. Fallen Angels , Walter Dean Myers

Reason: drugs, offensive language, racism, sexual content, violence

1. The Things They Carried , Tim OBrien

Reasons: profanity, sexual content, controversial

1. Out of Darkness , Ashley Hope Prez

Reasons: sexually explicit, depictions of abuse

1. The Golden Compass , Philip Pullman

Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, violence

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

Reasons: authors public statements, selective storytelling incidents, and does not encompass racism against all people