Harry Potter series tops list of most challenged books for third year in a row

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ALA News Release


For Immediate Release


January 2002

Harry Potter series tops list of most challenged books for third year in a row

The best-selling Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling tops the list of books most challenged in 2001, according to the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom. The Potter series drew complaints from parents and others concerned about the books' focus on wizardry and magic.

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received a total of 448 reports of challenges last year. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school about a book's content or appropriateness. The majority of challenges are reported by public libraries, schools and school libraries. According to Judith F. Krug, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, the number of challenges reflects only incidents reported. She says that for each challenge reported, as many as four or five remain unreported.

The "Ten Most Challenged Books of 2001" reflect a wide variety of themes. The books, in order of most frequently challenged are:

  • Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, for its focus on wizardry and magic.
  • "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language and being unsuited to age group.
  • "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier (the "Most Challenged" fiction book of 1998), for using offensive language 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.
  • "Summer of My German Soldier" by Bette Greene for racism, offensive language and being sexually explicit.
  • "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger for offensive language and being unsuited to age group.
  • Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, for being sexually explicit, using offensive language and being unsuited to age group.
  • "Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous for being sexually explicit, for offensive language and drug use.
  • "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers, for offensive language and being unsuited to age group.
  • "Blood and Chocolate" by Annette Curtis Klause for being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.

Not on the list this year, but on the list for the past several years, are the "Goosebumps" and "Fear Street" series, by R. L. Stine, which were challenged for being too frightening for young people and depicting occult or "Satanic" themes; "It's Perfectly Normal," a sex education book by Robie Harris, for being too explicit, especially for children; "Blubber," by Judy Blume, for offensive language and unsuited to age group; "The Handmaid's Tale," by Margaret Atwood, for its sexual content; "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker, for sexual content and offensive language; and "Snow Falling on Cedars," by David Guterson, for sexual content and offensive language.

For more information about banned books, please see the
Banned Books Web site.