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Young Adult Literature

Information about the genre and CSULB's collection.

Removing Books to Create Antiracist, Antibiased Collections

Wait!  What about removing books (especially older books) that we now know to be racist, sexist and/or homophobic? We don't want these books around but we don't want to be book banners!  We just need to be VERY careful in our reasons for removing a book.  Is our reasoning personal biases?  Is there a general belief that this book is harmful? Watch the slippery slope. Also consider books as historical research, representing thinking at a time in history, for older children's learning, vs. younger children.

Other Barriers to Access

Beyond banning:  What other barriers exist for access:

  • Held “pending investigation”
  • Purchasing
  • Location in collection
  • Need to ask
  • Hide from family/friends
  • Need to check out (fines?)

Top 10 Most Challenged Books 2020

top 10 most challenged books 2020

2019 Top 10 Most Challenged Books

Challenged Authors

Laurie Halse Anderson - Speak

Jason Reynolds - American Boys, Stamped

Pam Muñoz Ryan/Elizabeth Acevedo - Esperanza Rising/The Poet X

Benjamin Alire Sáenz - Aristotle and Dante

Melinda Lo -Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Voices of the Apocalypse

Graphic Novelists - (Gene Luen Yang + Jerry Craft)  American Born Chinese + New Kid

Francisco Jiménez - The Circuit

The Yoons: Nicola and David The Sun is Also a Star

Nic Stone- Dear Martin

Banned and Challenged Books

"A book worth banning is a book worth reading"

Everyday books are still being challenged and removed from shelves, libraries, classrooms and reading lists.

Top 10 Most Challenged Books 2021

Top Ten most challenged books of 2021

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2021. Of the 1597 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books:

  1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images
  2. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  3. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  4. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
  5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda
  6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references and use of a derogatory term
  7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
    Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women
  8. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit
  9. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
    Reasons: Banned, challenged, relocated, and restricted for providing sexual education and LGBTQIA+ content.
  10. Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
    Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit. 

Censorship By the Numbers 2020

censorship by the numbers from ALA

Banned/Challenged YA Books

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Speak

Baby Be-Bop

On My Honor

The Hunger Games (Series)

Wasteland

Tiger Eyes

You Hear Me

Girl Goddess #9

Then Again, Maybe I Won't

The Face on the Milk Carton

The Chocolate War

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Whale Talk

Fat Kid Rules the World

The Drowning of Stephan Jones

Olive's Ocean

The Outsiders

Jacob Have I Loved

His Dark Materials Series

Harry Potter (Series)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

What My Mother Doesn't Know

The Boy Who Lost His Face

Looking for Alaska

America

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (Georgia Nicholson Series)

Athletic Shorts

Blood and Chocolate

Cut

Banned/Challenged High School Books

Lord of the Flies

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Handmaid's Tale

The Kite Runner

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Catcher in the Rye

Of Mice and Men

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Bless Me, Ultima

Brave New World

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

Fahrenheit 451

The Lovely Bones

The House of the Spirits

Flowers for Algernon

The Outsiders

Banned and Challenged Children's Poetry

Nightmares

You Hear Me

How to (Un)Cage a Girl

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Slugs