By Diedra Eby
Flyer for PCC’s Silent Read-in, 2025.
On October 7, 2025, Pima Community College campuses held Silent Read-ins for banned and challenged books. I visited the downtown campus, where approximately twenty students had visited, most coming to browse and do their reading elsewhere. Here are the top 10 books that were censored, banned or challenged in 2024, in this order:
The Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2024 infographic was released as part of the 2025 State of America’s Libraries Report. Courtesy of the American Library Association.
- “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson
- “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe
- “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
- “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky
- “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins
- “Looking for Alaska” by John Green
- “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews
- “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins
- “Sold” by Patricia McCormick
- “Flamer” by Mike Curato
According to the American Library Association, California is the state with the highest number of attempts at book censorship in public schools and libraries in the U.S., and Nevada is the state with the lowest number of attempts.
According to The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), the “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade” include:
- “Captain Underpants” (series) by Dav Pilkey
- “The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby” by Dav Pilkey
- “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James
- “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
- “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins
- “I am Jazz” by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel
- “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
- “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls
- “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
- “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
- “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
- “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
- “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
- “The Things They Carried” by Time O’Brien
- “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich
- “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi
- “Beloved” by Toni Morrison
- “Goosebumps” (series) by R. L. Stine
- “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger
- “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
- “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon
- “The Holy Bible”
- “The Giver” by Lois Lowry
Photo by Diedra Eby.
Fifty-five percent of censorship/challenges is aimed at public libraries, with the next largest target being school libraries. Only about two percent of challenges happen on the higher education level.
The OIF has compiled statistics that show “nearly 82 percent of challenges in 2024 were initiated by pressure groups and decision makers who have been swayed by them.” However, you can find information on their website to fight back (see below). The OIF has relaunched its Lawyers for Libraries and Law for Librarians programs “to provide additional support and resources by expanding upon its legal initiatives, to ensure a coordinated and strategic approach to counter groups organizing censorship efforts.” Without the American Library Association’s OIF, books challenged are at risk of becoming banned and unobtainable forever.
Pick up a banned/challenged book today to support your library and thank a librarian that it is still available.
Photo by Diedra Eby.
For more information, visit:
1. American Library Association (2025): Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
2. American Library Association (2025): Censorship by the Numbers. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/censorship-numbers
3. American Library Association: Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books over the Last Decade https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019