2015-2016 Banned & Challenged Books

This year's Banned Books Week is focusing on the diversity of authors and ideas that have prompted a disproportionate share of challenges. ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom estimates that more than half of all banned books are by authors of color or ones that represent groups of viewpoints outside the mainstream.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, in Texas v. Johnson, said, "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." Objections to sex, profanity, and racism in literature are the most common examples of attempts to censor, and most occur in schools and school libraries.

Individuals are free to choose what they themselves or their children read, but it is not a role for governmental or public agencies.

Attempts to censor - referred to as "challenges" in this list - are not mere expressions of a point of view; rather, they represent requests to remove materials from schools or libraries, thus restricting access to them by others. Even when such challenges are overturned and the book allowed to stay on library shelves, the censorship attempt is real and has an impact. Teachers may be reluctant to place the book on future reading lists, fewer copies may be bought or read.

This list documents both challenges and bannings, calling our attention to a practice that many think is no longer a treat. And in fact, it includes only a fraction of such attempts. The list is limited to books and does not include challenges to magazines, newspapers, films, broadcasts, plays, performances, electronic publications, or exhibits. Surveys also indicate that up to 85 percent of actual challenges to library materials receive no media attention and remain unreported.

Some of the titles on the list will seem predictable, others might surprise. Because of the celebration of Banned Books Week since 1982, most of them are still available in schools and libraries. Don't take their presence for granted.

--Robert P. Doyle

Below is a list of the 45 titles that were newly challenged this year 2015-2016 and a description of why the book was challenged. For a full reason for why these books were on the field list, click here.