Blog: Aurora Public Library Blog

Banned Books Week 2020

Each fall, the American Library Association and numerous partnering organizations celebrate the freedom to read during Banned Books Week. This year’s celebration runs Sept. 27 to Oct. 3 with the theme “Censorship is a dead end. Find your freedom to read!”. Banned Books Week aims to celebrate each individual’s freedom to read as well to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. The week also draws attention to efforts aimed at restricting or removing access to books based on a variety of reasons as well the harms of censorship.

Each year the Office of Intellectual Freedom within ALA compiles a list of the year’s most frequently challenged, relocated and banned books based on media reports and reports from librarians and teachers. In 2019, 377 challenges were tracked on 566 books.

Below is a list of the most challenged and banned books of the past decade, from 2010 to 2019. For more information about Banned Books Week, click here. For more information about challenges to books and reasons for the below challenges, visit the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom.

Most Frequently Challenged Books: 2010 - 2019

Picture Books

- “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo” by Jill Twiss
- “Prince & Knight” by Daniel Haack
- “I Am Jazz” by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
- “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell
- “Skippyjon Jones” by Judy Schachner
- “This Day in June” by Gayle E Pitman
- “Little Bill” by Bill Cosby
- “Nasreen’s Secret School” by Jeannette Winter
- “My Mom’s Having a Baby!” By Dori Butler

Kids' Books

- “George” by Alex Gino
-“Sex is a Funny Word” by Cory Silverberg
- “Drama” by Raina Telgemeier
- “Harry Potter” by J. K. Rowling
- “Captain Underpants” by Dav Pilkey
- “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harris
- “Bone” by Jeff Smith
- “Scary Stories” by Alvin Schwartz
- “Alice” by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Young Adult Books

- “Beyond Magenta” by Susan Kuklin
- “This One Summer” by Mariko Tamaki
- “Thirteen Reasons” Why by Jay Asher
- “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
- “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
- “Two Boys Kissing” by David Levithan
- “Looking for Alaska” by John Green
- “Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell
- “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
- “A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl” by Tanya Lee Stone
- “Ttyl” Series by Lauren Myracle
- “The Color of Earth” by Kim Dong Hwa
- “Gossip Girl” by Ziegesar
- “What My Mother Doesn’t Know” by Sonya Sones
- “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins
- “Lush” by Natasha Friend
- “Revolutionary Voices” by Amy Sonnie
- “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer

Adult Books
Adult

- “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
- “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
- “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
- “Big Hard Sex Criminals” by Matt Fraction
- “Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread” by Palahniuk
- “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James
- “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon
- The Bible
- “Fun Home” by Alison Bechdel
- “Habibi” by Craig Thompson
- “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi
- “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
- “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky
- “A Stolen Life” by Jaycee Dugard
- “Bless Me Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya
- “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls
- “Beloved” by Toni Morrison
- “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
- “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich

Sources: American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom, Banned Books Week

Posted by [email protected] On 26 September, 2020 at 1:29 PM

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