Each year, the American Library Asociation's Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the top ten most frequently challenged books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.
These are the top ten most frequently challenged books of 2014, out of 311 challenges recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom.
For more information and resources on banned/challenged books, visit www.lapl.org/banned.
In the face of constant poverty and lack of opportunities on his Spokane Indian reservation, nerdy cartoonist Junior makes the decision to leave the reservation to attend the all-white public school where he is the only Native-American and subject to constant bullying and stereotypes. His cartoons, present throughout the book, help him to cope and understand.
The Bluest Eye (1970) is the first novel written by Toni Morrison. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove—a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
This volume contains parts 1 and 2 of Satrapi's best-selling memoir, which relates in graphic novel form the story of the author’s childhood and young adult years in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. A film version of this book came out in 2007.
Middle-schooler Callie juggles drama both on and off stage in this winning and fun title about friendship, crushes, musical theater, and finding oneself, by the same author of the popular and award-winning Smile.
Introduces human sexuality, describes the changes brought about by puberty, and discusses sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, and pregnancy.
A tale of a tumultuous father-son relationship in present-day Afghanistan and the United States which reveals two family secrets.
High school freshman Charlie writes a series of letters, to whom we don't know. In them he details his life as a wallflower, struggling to fit in, finding comfort in an odd new circle of friends.
This is the second part of a multi-volume graphic novel of war-crossed lovers trying to live and raise their daughter in a universe torn apart by a war between their people. The universe this story is set in is rich, strange and familiar. The characters are believable, charming and surprising. It’s a strange, wild ride.
Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped when she was 11 years old, and was held prisoner by a registered sex offender for over 18 years before her reappearance in 2009. A Stolen Life was written by Jaycee herself and covers the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present. In her stark, compelling narrative, she opens up about what she experienced—and offers an extraordinary account of courage and resilience.
