Frequently Challenged Books

The ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the country. We compile lists of challenged books in order to inform the public about censorship efforts that affect libraries and schools. The top ten most challenged books of 2015 include:
  1. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
    Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
  2. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
  3. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
    Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
  4. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
    Reasons: 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. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
    Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
  6. The Holy Bible
    Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
  7. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
    Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
  8. Habibi, by Craig Thompson
    Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
  9. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
    Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
  10. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
    Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”) [information pulled from: The American Library Association on August 2016]
2016 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults
  • Albertalli, Becky. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Harper/Balzer and Bray. 2015. 320p. ISBN: 9780062348678.  Simon is falling in love for the first time. Over email, if that’s even possible.
  • Bardugo, Leigh. Six of Crows. Holt. 2015. 480p. ISBN: 9781627792127. Presented an offer too lucrative to refuse, gang leader Kaz Brekker and his team of convicts, runaways, and thieves set out to smuggle an imprisoned scientist from an impenetrable Fjerdan fortress, only to face treachery and betrayal along the way.
  • Brooks, Kevin. The Bunker Diary. Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab. 2015. 264p. ISBN: 9781467754200. Sixteen-year-old Linus Weems is kidnapped and transported to an underground bunker, where he is joined by five other kidnapping victims. Where are they? Why have they been taken?  And can they survive?
  • Crowder, Melanie. Audacity. Philomel. 2015. 400p. ISBN: 9780399168994. This novel-in-verse fictionalizes the teen years of Clara Lemlich Shavelson, the leader of the New York shirtwaist strike of 1909. Fleeing from anti-Semitic Russia, the teen and her family struggle to adapt to their new home.
  • Older, Daniel José. Shadowshaper. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books. 2015. 304p. ISBN: 9780545591614. Sierra Santiago was amped on her summer of painting murals and hanging with friends, before noticing the murals were fading faster than normal. Another street artist named Robbie is the only one who can help her to unlock this mystery.
  • Reynolds, Jason. The Boy in the Black Suit. Atheneum. 2015. 272p. ISBN: 9781442459502. To deal with his mother's passing, Matt accepts a job at the local funeral home. Matt meets Lovey at her grandmother’s funeral. The two of them share a bond that will help them both to move past their own respective losses.
  • Ruby, Laura. Bone Gap. Harper/Balzer and Bray. 2015. 368p. ISBN: 9780062317605. In a small town full of strange happenings, Finn is determined to uncover the mystery of Roza’s disappearance.
  • Shabazz, Ilyasah and Kekla Magoon. X: A Novel. Candlewick. 2015. 384p. ISBN: 9780763669676. This fictionalized account of Malcolm X’s teen years poignantly presents the young man’s struggles with identity, racism, and crime.
  • Shusterman, Neal. Challenger Deep. HarperTeen. 2015. 320p. ISBN: 9780061134111. As Caden descends into mental illness, his visions of a descent into the deep waters of a trench take over.
  • Silvera, Adam. More Happy than Not. Soho Teen. 2015. 304p. ISBN: 9781616955601. After enduring his father’s suicide, his own suicide attempt, broken friendships, and more in the Bronx projects, Aaron Soto, 16, is already considering the Leteo Institute’s memory-alteration procedure when his new friendship with Thomas turns to unrequited love.