Banned Books Week invites us to celebrate the freedom to read and to recognize the importance of keeping books available to everyone.

This past year, the Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 4,235 unique titles challenges, the second highest ever documented by American Library Association. Of the unique titles challenged last year, 40 percent represent the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color. Instead of censoring lived experiences, our society should be advocating to learn about them. We invite you to check out the 11 most banned books last year, read them, share them with a friend, and advocate against banned books! 

1) Sold by Patricia McCormick: Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape. (Fiction, Young Adult)

“To ban this book is to erase the young people around the world who are currently enslaved. To ban this book is a disservice to the women who shared their stories with me so the world could know about their plight. And to ban this book is disrespectful to the young readers who want to know about the world as it is – so they can make a difference. But, perhaps most important, to ban this book is to take away a lifeline for readers who are experiencing abuse. These kids know what adults often don’t. Books aren’t the problem; they are part of the solution.”

2) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: A coming of age novel about Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. He deals with the usual teen problems, but also with the suicide of his best friend. (Fiction, Young Adult)

“This book is my love letter and wish for every kid who is struggling with identity, because at the time I was writing it, I was struggling with my own.”—Stephen Chbosky

3) Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe: Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears… (Non-Fiction, Young Adult)

“Queer youth are often forced to look outside their own homes, and outside the education system, to find information on who they are. Removing or restricting queer books in libraries and schools is like cutting a lifeline for queer youth, who might not yet even know what terms to ask Google to find out more about their own identities, bodies and health.” – Maia Kobabe

4) Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas: The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don’t. As the kingdoms of Erilea fracture around her, enemies must become allies if Aelin is to keep those she loves from falling to the dark forces poised to claim her world. (Fiction, Young Adult)

5) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo: Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father–despite his hard-won citizenship–Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day (Fiction, Young Adult)

6) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins: Tricks is a young adult verse novel by Ellen Hopkins, released in August 2009. It tells the converging narratives of five troubled teenage protagonists. (Fiction, Young Adult)

7) A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from stories, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the faeries. As her feelings toward him transform from hostility to a fiery passion, the threats against the faerie lands grow. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse or she will lose Tamlin forever. (Fiction, Young Adult)

8) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess: In Anthony Burgess’s influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends’ intense reaction against their society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. (Fiction, Adult)

9) Identical by Ellen Hopkins: Sixteen-year-old identical twin daughters of a district court judge and a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Kaeleigh and Raeanne Gardella desperately struggle with secrets that have already torn them and their family apart (Fiction, Young Adult)

“Identical tackles perhaps the most difficult subject matter of all. It is about identical twins whose father is sexually abusing one of them. I chose this subject matter because the issue touched the lives of three of my friends. Today, they are successful, beautiful women who you would never believe this might have happened to. I want readers to know it is possible to find a way beyond this terrible place, into a brighter future.” —Ellen Hopkins

10) Looking for Alaska by John Green: Sixteen-year-old Miles’ first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. (Fiction, Young Adult)

11) Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout: Eighteen-year-old Trinity Marrow may be going blind, but she can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits. Her unique gift is part of a secret so dangerous that she’s been in hiding for years in an isolated compound fiercely guarded by Wardens—gargoyle shape-shifters who protect humankind from demons. If the demons discover the truth about Trinity, they’ll devour her, flesh and bone, to enhance their own powers.