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#10 (tie) This Book Is Gay

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson; David Levithan (Introduction by)
Number of challenges: 48
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).

#10 (tie) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Number of challenges: 48
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).

#10 (tie) Crank

Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Number of challenges: 48
Challenged for: drug use, claimed to be sexually explicit

Crank by Ellen Hopkins tells the story of a teenage girl who becomes addicted to crank, a form of methamphetamine. The novel follows Kristina's downward spiral as she attempts to feed her addiction and deal with the consequences of the bad decisions that she has made. At one of her lowest points, Kristina learns that she is pregnant by a man who raped her. Although she realizes how much destruction the drugs have brought into her life, Kristina still is unable to break her addiction. Author Ellen Hopkins tells a powerful story about how easy it is to get addicted to drugs and how difficult it is to break away from these drugs. Stanza spacing, word spacing, word placement, and rhythm of the words all work together to help Hopkins tell her story in a very powerful and memorable way (BookRags).

#10 (tie) A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Number of challenges: 48
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit

Feyre endured so many trials and hardships in her life. More than one person should carry. She is haunted and hollow after what she faced under the mountain trying to save Tamlin and his people. Looking at eternity as one of the High Fae, she has to figure out what she wants. Her marriage is approaching, but the closer it gets, the more divided she feels. Part of her wants to uphold her bargain with Rhysand, the High Lord of the Night Court, and the other part wants to float through life with Tamlin in the Spring Court. Through it all, Feyre learns how to weave through the deception, intrigue, great power, and evil looming on the horizon. Feyre might be the key to saving them all again, but before she can save anyone, she has to put the fractured pieces of herself back in order and master her new gifts (The Book Nanny).

#9 Out of Darkness

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
Number of challenges: 50
Challenged for: depictions of abuse, claimed to be sexually explicit

On March 18, 1937, a natural gas leak led to a deadly explosion and collapse of the all-white school in New London, a town in East Texas. Ashley Hope Pérez, who grew up nearby, mined her grandmother’s recollections, archives, and historical narratives to build a complex and memorable novel around this event, a novel that at its core explores love across hard racial lines. Ultimately, this powerful novel asks: What are we willing to sacrifice for friendship and love? For defying an unjust society? For working to bring about racial justice? (Social Justice Books)

#8 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (National Book Award Winner) by Sherman Alexie
Number of challenges: 52
Challenged for: profanity, claimed to be sexually explicit

In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author’s own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live (Little Brown).

#7 Lawn Boy

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Number of challenges: 54
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

Worried about finding enough money to buy a new inner tube for his bike, a twelve-year-old boy gets an old riding mower from his grandmother for his birthday. Soon he is mowing his neighbors’ lawns, and making more money than he thought possible. When he meets Arnold, a stockbroker who teaches him about managing money, investing, growing a business, and the brutal ups and downs of the marketplace, things really get going (Big Bad Book Blog).

#5 (tie) The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Number of challenges: 55
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).

#5 (tie) Looking For Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green
Number of challenges: 55
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

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 Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps (John Green Books).

#4 Flamer

Flamer by Mike Curato (Illustrator)
Number of challenges: 62
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).

#3 The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Number of challenges: 73
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).

#2 All Boys Aren't Blue

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
Number of challenges: 86
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: 151
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).

Banned & Challenged Books

Read Banned Books

#10 (tie) This Book Is Gay

#10 (tie) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

#10 (tie) Crank

#10 (tie) A Court of Mist and Fury

#9 Out of Darkness

#8 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

#7 Lawn Boy

#5 (tie) The Perks of Being a Wallflower

#5 (tie) Looking For Alaska

#4 Flamer

#3 The Bluest Eye

#2 All Boys Aren't Blue

#1 Gender Queer: A Memoir