Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2005
Out of 405 challenges reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom
- It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health, by Robie H. Harris
Reasons: abortion, homosexuality, nudity, religious viewpoint, sex education, unsuited to age group - Forever, by Judy Blume
Reasons: offensive language, sexual content - The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
Reasons: sexual content, offensive language, unsuited to age group - The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: sexual content, offensive language - Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
Reasons: racism, offensive language - Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
Reason: sexual content - What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: sexual content, being unsuited to age group - Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
Reasons: anti-family content, unsuited to age group, violence - Crazy Lady!, by Jane Leslie Conly
Reason: offensive language - It’s So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families, by Robie H. Harris
Reasons: sex education, sexual content
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.
