Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2001
Out of 448 challenges reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom
- Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling
Reasons: anti-family, occult/Satanism, religious viewpoint, violence - Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group, violence - The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit - Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Greene
Reasons: offensive language, racism, sexually explicit - The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: offensive language, unsuited to age group - Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group - Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit - Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
Reason: offensive language - Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
OIF receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media on attempts to ban books and compiles this information into lists in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The ALA condemns censorship and works to ensure free access to information. For more information on ALA's efforts to condemn censorship, please explore Banned Books Week: Celebrating Your Freedom to Read.
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges. Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.
