A memoir about growing up nonbinary and asexual has once again topped the American Library Association’s annual list of the most challenged books—and new data shows that in a year of record censorship attempts, the “vast majority” targeted books with LGBTQIA+ and/or BIPOC characters.
The Challenges
The Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2022 list (actually 13 titles this year because of ties) was released today, Right to Read Day, as part of the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) annual “State of America’s Libraries Report.” In 2022, a record 1,269 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services, targeting a record 2,571 unique titles for censorship, versus 729 challenges and 1,858 unique titles targeted in 2021. “Challenges” are documented requests to remove materials from schools or libraries, calculated from censorship reports submitted through the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom as well as from media mentions.
Of the challenged titles, the ALA says, “the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community or by and about Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.” This is an awful trend we’ve seen for many years. The record numbers of challenges now, however, “are evidence of a growing, well-organized, conservative political movement whose goals include removing books addressing race, history, gender identity, sexuality, and reproductive health from America’s public libraries and school libraries that do not meet their approval.”
Here are the top 13 most challenged books in 2022. Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer holds the top spot, as it did in 2021. Seven of the books were targeted because of LGBTQIA+ content.
1. Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe (Bookshop; Amazon)
2. All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit.
3. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: depiction of sexual abuse, claimed to be sexually explicit, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) content.
4. Flamer, by Mike Curato (Bookshop, Amazon). Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit.
5. (TIE) “Looking for Alaska,” by John Green (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content.
5. (TIE) “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, depiction of sexual abuse, drugs, profanity.
7. Lawn Boy, by Jonathan Evison (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit.
8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity.
9. Out of Darkness, by Ashley Hope Perez (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit.
10. (TIE) “A Court of Mist and Fury,” by Sarah J. Maas (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit.
10. (TIE) “Crank,” by Ellen Hopkins (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs.
10. (TIE) “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” by Jesse Andrews (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity.
10. (TIE) “This Book is Gay,” by Juno Dawson (Bookshop; Amazon). Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit.
The Bigger Picture
The ALA’s findings complement those from a recent PEN America report, “Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools,” which found that between July and December, 2022, there were 1,477 instances of individual books banned in schools (both libraries and classrooms), affecting 874 unique titles, up from 1,149 book bans between January and June 2022. Over 4,000 bans, affecting 2,253 unique titles, have been recorded since PEN America started tracking them in July 2021. They have impacted 182 school districts in 37 states and millions of students. PEN America and the ALA each look at somewhat different institutions and reporting periods, so the numbers won’t exactly align—but the overall picture they paint is frightening.
The ALA points to “lists of books compiled by organized censorship groups” as the main reason the numbers are so high. “90% of the overall number of books challenged were part of attempts to censor multiple titles,” it says. Of those attempts, 40% sought to remove or restrict over 100 titles at once.
PEN America adds that while parent-led groups in 2021-22 coordinated many of the book bans, state legislation in 2022-23 is “supercharging” them. “School districts in many states are reacting to new laws that dictate the types of books that can even be in schools, or what kinds of policies they have to follow to add new books and review their collections,” it explains. The districts “respond to vague legislation by removing large numbers of books prior to any formal review.” Many books are “banned pending investigation” and “removed from student access before due process of any kind is carried out; in many cases, books are removed before they are even read, or before objections to books are checked for basic accuracy.”
The ALA notes that book bans are just part of what’s happening. “Both school and public librarians are increasingly in the crosshairs of conservative groups during book challenges and subject to defamatory name-calling, online harassment, social media attacks, and doxxing, as well as direct threats to their safety, their employment, and their very liberty,” writes Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. In 2022, she adds, legislation was introduced in 12 states “to amend state criminal obscenity statutes in order to permit criminal prosecution of librarians and educators for distributing materials falsely claimed to be illegal and inappropriate for minors.”
Yet librarians, local residents, library trustees, board members, parents, and other library advocates have in many cases joined together to fight the bans and have had some wins in court, the ALA notes.
Why This Matters
Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, 2022–2023 ALA president, also writes in the report:
As a mixed-race Native Hawaiian woman born and raised in the continental United States, I know that access to my own stories and histories, as well as those of others, is essential to creating the society we try to model in libraries. When we talk about inclusion and being seen, we mean included and seen in all the intersectionalities of our lives, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, ability, socioeconomic status, and more. When we talk about inclusion in libraries, we take all of these into account and take the wholeness and humanness of our communities into account, which is why we are the trusted institutions in our communities. It is also why, despite the pushback against us, we continue to be there for those who need us year after year. There is always more to the story, and the library is here to make sure those stories get heard.
All kids need to see themselves, their families, and the world around them reflected in authentic ways. Books are a vital part of that. I am heartened by the sheer number of new and upcoming books for young people that are inclusive of LGBTQ people and those with other marginalized identities (and there are some really good ones coming out in the coming months, so stay tuned). Yes, they will face challenges and sometimes bans—but the more books there are, the harder it will be to stop them. I also have no doubt that kids will find ways of obtaining them and that enterprising adults (librarians and otherwise) will help make them available.
What to Do
As Tracie D. Hall, executive director of the ALA, notes in the report, however, the Top 10 list should not just be data to consume, but a tool to inspire mobilization and action. Here are some ways you can do so.
- Confidentially report censorship attempts to the ALA and/or to the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC).
- Visit Unite Against Book Bans, an ALA-led coalition that includes LGBTQ organizations, publishers, and others, for talking points, suggested actions, and more resources.
- Participate in town, school board, and library meetings. Vote even in purely local elections. The ALA and PFLAG have created some helpful tips for testifying at such meetings.
- Consider running for school and library boards yourself.
- Donate to organizations fighting book bans, if your means allow.
- Recommend books about LGBTQ and other marginalized people to your local libraries to show there is community support and need for them. Also recommend them to the young people you know so that they check them out.
- Leave reviews for LGBTQ-inclusive children’s and young adult books on Amazon, Goodreads, and similar sites to counter reviews that claim they are inappropriate.
I’ll also add: Go read a banned book—then see what you can do to pass it along to a young person or donate it to a school, library, or community center!
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