The annual list of the most frequently challenged books has been released by the American Library Association. (ALA). They report that in the last year (2011) their Intellectual Freedom Office received “326 reports of attempts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves.”
Here are the top ten most challenged books of 2011:
1)      ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
2)      The Color of Earth (series) by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
3)      The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
4)      My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
5)      The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
6)      Alice (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: Nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
7)      Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: Insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
8)      What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
Reasons: Nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
9)      Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: Drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
10)  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reasons: Offensive language; racism
