ALA Announces Challenged Books

The American Library Association today released their annual list of the year’s most frequently challenged books.  Challenged books refer to those that patrons, parents, and others request to be removed from school or public libraries.  The number of challenges in 2008 was up almost twenty-five percent from 2007, a worrying sign, though books still aren’t being challenged at the rates they were twenty years ago.  513 challenges were reported last year, though it should be noted that the number only reflects formal written complaints; the ALA believes the actual number of books complained about may be as high as five times that figure.

Topping the list for the third year in a row is And Tango Makes Three, the picture book about gay penguins.  Following behind were Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Alvin Schwartz’ Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark series (which I loved when I was nine), Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (which I loved when I was nineteen), the Gossip Girl books (which I love now), Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, and Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

According to the ALA, books were actually pulled from shelves seventy-four times last year.