Harry Potter Returns to ALA’s
Most-challenged Books List

The best-selling Harry Potter series of children’s books by
J. K Rowling tops the list of most-challenged books for the second year in a row in the annual report issued January 15 by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. The series continues to draw complaints from parents and others concerned about the books’ alleged occult or Satanic theme, religious viewpoint, antifamily approach, and violence.

The other titles on the list, in order of number of challenges, were:

• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, for offensive language and being unsuited to age group.
• The “Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, for sexual content and being unsuited to age group.
• Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan, for violence and sexual content.
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language, racism, violence, and being unsuited to age group.
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, for sexual content, racism, offensive language, violence, and being unsuited to age group.
• Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, for offensive language, racism, violence, and being unsuited to age group.
• The “Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz, for violence, being unsuited to age group, and occult themes.
• The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney, for violence, being unsuited to age group, and occult themes.
• The Giver by Lois Lowry, for being sexually explicit, occult themes, and violence.

Posted January 29, 2001.