Looking for something to read during your Banned Books Week celebrations? Start here!

ALA OIF Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2017

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has published their annual list of the ten most frequently challenged and banned books, along with an analysis of the censorship threats facing U.S. schools and libraries.

In 2017, the following books were among the most frequently attacked:

1. Banned Spotlight: Thirteen Reasons Why
2. Banned Spotlight: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
3. Banned Spotlight: Drama
4. Banned Spotlight: The Kite Runner
5. Banned Spotlight: George
6. Banned Spotlight: Sex Is a Funny Word
7. Banned Spotlight: To Kill a Mockingbird
8. Banned Spotlight: The Hate U Give
9. Banned Spotlight: And Tango Makes Three
10. Banned Spotlight: I Am Jazz

If you’re looking for EVEN MORE challenged and banned books to read, check out the top ten lists for previous years here!

The National Council for Teachers of English has also compiled a comprehensive list of books that have been challenged between 2002 and 2018. View the list here!

Banned Spotlight: Censored Comics

Comics are challenged for all of the same reasons that other books are challenged, but they are uniquely vulnerable to challenges because of their visual nature. Because comics thrive on the power of the static image, a single page or panel can be the impetus for a challenge in a way that’s different from a passage in a book. Some people still believe that comics are low value speech or are made exclusively for children, and object to comics in the library because of these misconceptions. Comic Book Legal Defense Fund specializes in the defense of comics and graphic novels and the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Find out more about these 30 comics, which CBLDF has helped defend!

• Amazing Spider-Man: Revelations by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita, Jr., and Scott Hanna
• Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa
• Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
• Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Boland
• Blankets by Craig Thompson
• Bone by Jeff Smith
• The Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner
• Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
• Drama by Raina Telgemeier
• The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell
• Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes
• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
• Maus by Art Spiegelman
• Neonomicon by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows
• Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
• Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon
• Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• Sandman by Neil Gaiman and various artists
• SideScrollers by Matthew Loux
• Sword Art Online: Aincrad by Reki Kawahara and abec
• Stuck in the Middle, edited by Ariel Schrag
• Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
• Tank Girl by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett
• This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
• Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
• Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

Banned Spotlight: Plays and Musicals

The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund works to protect the rights of playwrights and performers, including their First Amendment rights to stage a work. One of the tools DLDF provides is The Defender, a database of dramatic works that have been challenged or censored. At present, the list includes more than 70 works that have been targeted by censors. Find out more here…