Skip to main content

Infographic: Top 11 Most Challenged and Banned Books of 2018

Every year the American Library Association tracks which books busybodies don’t want you to read. In 2018, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) recorded 347 challenges to library, school and university materials, and services.

These challenges affected 483 books (as well as many other materials) in 2018, with the following comprising the top 11 most frequently challenged:

  1. George by Alex Gino
    Reason: for including a transgender character
  2. A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by E. G. Keller
    Reasons: for LGBTQIA+ content, political and religious viewpoints
  3. Captain Underpants series, written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey
    Reasons: for including a same-sex couple, perceived as encouraging disruptive behavior
  4. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
    Reasons: for profanity, drug use, sexual references, deemed “anti-cop”
  5. Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
    Reason: for LGBTQIA+ characters and themes
  6. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
    Reason: for addressing teen suicide
  7. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
    Reasons: for profanity, sexual references, certain illustrations
  8. Skippyjon Jones series, written and illustrated by Judy Schachner
    Reason: for depicting cultural stereotypes
  9. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: for profanity, sexual references, religious viewpoint
  10. This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman, illustrated by Kristyna Litten
    Reason: for LGBTQIA+ content
  11. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
    Reason: for LGBTQIA+ content

via InfoDocket

Similar Articles


Comments


G.B. Miller April 10, 2019 um 5:56 am

I always take these ALA banned book lists with a grain of salt, as they have a tendency to lump everything together. Most of these books were probably not outright banned but possibly challenged and/or questioned. If one of those books were actually banned, I’m very certain that the ALA would be trumpeting that fact in the media. The fact that they didn’t tells me that they had a very slow year for "book banning", so they had to pump up their annual list


Write a Comment