September 18th through 24th is Banned Books Week 2022. The annual event is in place to celebrate the freedom to read, in spite of censorship. It began in 1982, when there was a surge of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Most of the books that are challenged are due to LGBTQIA+ themes, but also for being sexually explicit, or including abuse.
The theme of the event this year is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.”
Here is a list of the top 10 most challenged books from 2021, as compiled by The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom:
- Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
- Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
- Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
For more details on this list, including the reason each book was challenged, please see the ALA’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books List.
For more on banned books, LitHub has compiled a selection of pieces concerning banned books. In addition, you can head over to BannedBooksWeek.org.