Here are the top 10 most banned and challenged books of 2021, along with the reasons they were challenged. The ALA shared a word cloud with the most common reasons books are banned or challenged. It also acts as a snapshot of the political discourse around these books in the last year, with “LGBTQIA,” “critical race theory,” and “woke” being some of the most common reasons. (Next to “sexually explicit,” which coincidentally only seems to be applied to LGBTQIA books or books by and about people of color.) It was challenged for LGBTQIA content and accused of being “sexually explicit.” It received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist, and it was a 2015 Stonewall Honor book. It was challenged for LGBTQIA content and for providing sexual education. It received a starred review from Booklist, was named a Guardian Best Book of the Year, and was the 2018 Garden State Teen Book Award Winner. It was challenged for depicting child sexual abuse and was accused of being sexually explicit. Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize and the Pulitzer Prize, and she is widely considered one of the best American novelists of all time. It was challenged for allegedly being sexually explicit and degrading to women. The book was made into a movie that won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. This title also received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, and it won several YALSA awards. It was challenged for profanity, “sexual references,” and “use of a derogatory term.” This title was a National Book Award winner. It also won a American Indian Youth Literature Award, but that award was rescinded after multiple women spoke out about Alexie sexually harassing them. It was challenged for profanity, violence, and being “anti-police.” It was a #1 New York Times Bestseller, received eight starred reviews, was a William C. Morris Debut Award Winner, and was made into a popular movie. It was challenged for depictions of abuse and accused of being sexually explicit. It was a Printz Honor Book, a School Library Journal Best Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and the Winner of the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award. It was challenged for profanity and LGBTQIA content, and it was accused of being sexually explicit. It was challenged for LGBTQIA content and accused of being sexually explicit. (Specifically, this title is often falsely accused of pedophilia, because it has a scene where the main character remembers experimenting with another boy when they were both young.) It received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. It was challenged for LGBTQIA content and accused of having sexually explicit images. It won the 2020 Alex Award and Stonewall Book Award. The ALA has its own page for this title, which includes award and honors, reviews, where it’s been banned/challenged, and additional resources. — ALA OIF (@OIF) April 4, 2022 You can see previous years’ top ten most challenged books, as recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at the ALA website. To keep up with censorship news, check out Book Riot’s weekly Censorship News Round Up. To fight back against censorship and book bans, try the Anti-Censorship Tool Kit. — Ashley Hope Pérez (@ashleyhopeperez) April 4, 2022
