Stop by the library during the week of October 6 - 10 to view the Banned Books display and pick up a free pin while supplies last.
Banned Books Week, October 5-11, 2025: Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights
Banning or Challenging Books
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials [from a library], based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. - American Library Association
Top 10 Banned or Challenged Books in 2024
-
All Boys Aren't Blue
by
ISBN: 9780374312718Publication Date: 2020-04-28Number of challenges: 82
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit -
Gender Queer: a Memoir Deluxe Edition
by
ISBN: 9781637150726Publication Date: 2022-07-05Number of challenges: 106
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit -
The Bluest Eye
by
ISBN: 9780452287068Publication Date: 2005-09-06Number of challenges: 62
Challenged for: depiction of sexual abuse, EDI content, claimed to be sexually explicit -
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by
ISBN: 9781451696196Publication Date: 2012-08-14Number of challenges: 68
Challenged for: depiction of sexual abuse, LGBTQIA+ content, drug use, profanity, claimed to be sexually explicit -
Tricks
by
ISBN: 9781416950073Publication Date: 2009-08-25Number of challenges: 56
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQIA+ content -
Looking for Alaska
by
The award-winning, genre-defining debut from John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and The Fault in Our Stars Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award * A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist * A New York Times Bestseller * A USA Today Bestseller * NPR's Top Ten Best-Ever Teen Novels * TIME magazine's 100 Best Young Adult Novels of All Time * A PBS Great American Read Selection * Millions of copies sold! First drink. First prank. First friend. First love. Last words. 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. Newly updated edition includes a brand-new Readers' Guide featuring a Q&A with author John Green
Call Number: Available at your local public libraryISBN: 9780142402511Publication Date: 2006-12-28 -
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
by
ISBN: 1419701762Publication Date: 2012-03-01Number of challenges: 56
Challenged for: profanity, claimed to be sexually explicit -
Sold
by
ISBN: 9780786851713Publication Date: 2006-09-15Number of challenges: 53
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, rape -
Crank
by
The #1 New York Times bestselling tale of addiction--the first in the Crank trilogy--from master poet Ellen Hopkins. Life was good before I met the monster. After, life was great, At least for a little while. Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. Then, Kristina 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.
ISBN: 9781442471818Publication Date: 2013-08-06 -
Flamer
by
ISBN: 9781627796415Publication Date: 2020-09-01Number of challenges: 67
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
Top Banned or Challenged Books
-
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by
ISBN: 0520045580Publication Date: 1983-06-22Challenged for coarse language and racial stereotypes. -
The Kite Runner
by
ISBN: 9781573222457Publication Date: 2003-06-02Sexual content and offensive language. -
The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, Book One)
by
ISBN: 9780439023481Publication Date: 2008-10-01The Hunger Games has been banned or challenged "due to insensitivity, offensive language, violence, anti-family, anti-ethic, and occult/satanic" and the 2014 addition of "inserted religious views." -
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner)
by
ISBN: 9780316013680Publication Date: 2007-09-12Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity. -
-
Eyes of the Storm: a Graphic Novel (Bone #3)
by
ISBN: 0439706254Publication Date: 2006-02-01The Bone Series.
Challenged for: References to smoking, drinking and gambling. -
The Hate U Give Movie Tie-In Edition
by
ISBN: 9780062871350Publication Date: 2018-09-04Challenged for: Banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda -
The Catcher in the Rye
by
ISBN: 0316769487Publication Date: 1991-05-01Challenged for: crude language, occasional sexual themes and the whole notion of Holden Caulfield's quest. -
And Tango Makes Three
by
ISBN: 9781481448840Publication Date: 2015-06-02Challenged for: Challenges have included complaints that the story is “unsuitable for young children” and has "homosexual overtones.” -
Of Mice and Men
by
ISBN: 9780140177398Publication Date: 1993-09-01Challenged for: Challenges have included complaints about “profanity,” “morbid and depressing themes,” and the author’s alleged “anti-business attitude.” Others have called it “derogatory towards African Americans, women, and the developmentally disabled.” -
Speak
by
ISBN: 9780312674397Publication Date: 2011-05-10Challenged – Republic, Missouri 2010 – Wesley Scroggins, associate professor of management at Missouri State University, cautioned parents of the Republic School District that Speak's rape scenes were akin to “soft pornography” and should not be used in the school's curriculum. -
This Book Is Gay
by
ISBN: 9781492617822Publication Date: 2015-06-16Number of challenges: 48
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, providing sexual education, claimed to be sexually explicit
