Library: Banned & Challenged Books: Home

Read Banned Books

September 22-28, 2024 is Banned Books Week. The American Library Association's theme this year is "Freed Between the Lines". The MiraCosta College Library & Students' Pride in Honoring Our Existence through Resistance and Empowerment (SPHERE) invite you to learn more about banned & challenged books by reading the 10 most-challenged books in 2023!

In 2023, the American Library Association (ALA) documented more than 1,200 challenges to library books and resources. That is 65% more than the previous year and marks the highest amount of challenges recorded since the ALA started tracking challenges 20 years ago. Because many challenges are not reported to the ALA or covered by the press this list represents only a snapshot of book challenges; actual numbers are likely higher.

San Diego County book challenges have occurred in the City of Oceanside and at Poway Unified School District (a district review committee ultimately voted to keep both challenged books in high school libraries). Additionally, the Solana Beach School District adopted a new process for considering book donations; the same district was in the news in the fall of 2021 after students and parents both criticized and praised book donations at a board meeting.

Articles about Banned Books ALA Banned Books MiraCosta College Procedure for Challenges

#10 Sold

Sold by Patricia McCormick
Number of challenges: 53
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, depictions of sexual abuse

Told in a series of haunting vignettes, SOLD is a harrowing account of a sexual slavery. Alternating lyrical imagery with precise detail, McCormick gives voice to the terror and bewilderment of a young girl robbed of her childhood but who finds the strength to triumph (Patricia McCormick).

#9 Let's Talk About It

Let's Talk about It by Erika Moen; Matthew Nolan
Number of challenges: 55
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit, providing sexual education

Growing up is complicated. 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 (Penguin Random House).

#7/8 (tie) Tricks

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Number of challenges: 56
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit, drug use, depiction of sexual abuse

Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story—a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, “Can I ever feel okay about myself?” A brilliant achievement from New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins—who has been called “the bestselling living poet in the country” by Mediabistro.com—Tricks is a book that turns you on and repels you at the same time (Simon and Schuster).

#7/8 (tie) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Number of challenges: 56
Challenged for: profanity, claimed to be sexually explicit

This book is a story about a boy named Greg and his friend Earl who are both seniors in high school and enjoy a hobby of making not- so- great movies with his dad's old camera. Greg has a philosophy that if you don't make friends in high school then you can't make any enemies either, so he pretty much flies under the radar and only hangs out with Earl. That is, until one day, his mom forces him to become friends with his elementary school ex- girlfriend Rachel who was recently diagnosed with leukemia (Pikes Peak Library District).

#6 The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Number of challenges: 62
Challenged for: depiction of sexual abuse, EDI content, claimed to be sexually explicit

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison’s first novel, was published in 1970. Set in Lorain, Ohio — where Morrison herself was born — the book tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old African American girl who is convinced that she is ugly, and yearns to have lighter skin and blue eyes. This, she believes, could change her lot in life. Pecola lives in a violent household. Her parents consistently fight, and Pecola herself becomes pregnant after being raped by her alcoholic father, Cholly (PBS).

#5 Flamer

Flamer by Mike Curato (Illustrator)
Number of challenges: 67
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

It's the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone's going through changes―but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can't stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance. 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 (Mike Curato).

#4 The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Number of challenges: 68
Challenged for: depiction of sexual abuse, LGBTQIA+ content, drug use, profanity, claimed to be sexually explicit

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 (Simon and Schuster).

#3 This Book Is Gay

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson; David Levithan (Introduction by)
Number of challenges: 71
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, providing sexual education, claimed to be sexually explicit

This Book Is Gay is a 2014 young adult self-help book written by Juno Dawson to help teenagers understand the world of LGBTQ+ identities. Dawson uses humor in This Book Is Gay to communicate complex and stigmatized ideas to people who don’t fully understand what it means to be LGBTQ+. Illustrations by Spike Gerrell convey complex information through infographics and support Dawson’s humorous tone. Each chapter is interspersed with survey responses from LGBTQ+ people across the globe; these anecdotes and testimony give a wider view into each topic than one person could achieve on their own (SuperSummary).

#2 All Boys Aren't Blue

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
Number of challenges: 82
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

In a series of personal essays, prominent 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 (Macmillan Publishing).

#1 Gender Queer: A Memoir

Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe
Number of challenges: 106
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

Gender Queer is Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography that charts eir journey of self-identity, including the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, facing the trauma of pap smears, and eir very brief Tinder Journey (Stand with Trans, 2021).