Banned Books Week began in 1982 as a response to a rise in censorship and the growing number of challenged books within libraries, schools, and bookstores. The theme for Banned Books Week 2024 (September 22-28) is "Freed Between the Lines," which encourages people to share their love of the right to read and the freedom found in books.
According to recent findings by the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), the number of book challenges increased by 65% in 2023, reaching the highest level ever documented by ALA.
Book bans are certainly not a new phenomena, people have banned or challenged them since the beginning of the written word. Read on to discover the long history of censorship.
Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2023
Source: American Library Association
#1 - "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe (2019)
Number of challenges: 106
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
#2 - "All Boys Aren't Blue" by by George M. Johnson (2020)
Number of challenges: 82
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
#3 - "This Book Is Gay" by Juno Dawson (2021)
Number of challenges: 71
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit
#4 - "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky (2021)
Number of challenges: 68
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, rape, drugs, profanity
#5 - "Flamer" by Mike Curato (2020)
Number of challenges: 67
Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
#6 - "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison (1970)
Number of challenges: 62
Challenged for: rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI content
#7/8 (tie) - "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews (2015)
Number of challenges: 56
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity
#7/8 (tie) - "Tricks" by Ellen Hopkins (2017)
Number of challenges: 56
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQIA+ content
#10 - "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human" by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan (2021)
Number of challenges: 55
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQIA+ content
#9 - "Sold" by Patricia McCormick (2008)
Number of challenges: 53
Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, rape
Banned Books in Antiquity
- 213 BCE: Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the burning of all books, except those on agriculture, medicine and divination.
- 8 CE: The Roman poet Ovid was banished from Rome for writing "Ars Amatoria" (The Art of Love).
- 35 CE: The Roman emperor Caligula opposed the reading of "The Odyssey" by Homer.
- 640 CE: According to legend, the caliph Omar burned all 200,000 volumes in the library at Alexandria in Egypt.
- 1121: Peter Abelard was charged with Sabellianism by a local church council and made to burn his book "Theologia."
- 1497: Girolamo Savonarola ingited the great “bonfires of the vanities,” which destroyed books and paintings by some of the greatest artists of Florence.
- 1520: Pope Leo X demanded that Martin Luther renounce all of his writings, and when Luther refused to do so, excommunicated him in January 1521.
- 1524–26: Thousands of copies of William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament were printed in Germany and smuggled into England, where they were publicly burned in 1526 on the orders of London’s Roman Catholic bishop.
- 1559: Pope Paul IV established the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the definitive list of books that Roman Catholics were told not to read.
- 1597: Queen Elizabeth I orders that scenes depicting a king being deposed from his throne be removed from Shakespeare’s "Richard II."
- 1614: Sir Walter Raleigh’s book "The History of the World" was banned by King James I of England for “being too saucy in censuring princes.”
- 1616–42: Galileo’s theories about the solar system and his support of the discoveries of Copernicus were condemned by the Catholic Church.
- 1637: Thomas Morton’s "New English Canaan" became "America's first banned book" and Morton was nicknamed the “lord of misrule” by Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford.
- 1788: Shakespeare’s "King Lear" was banned from the stage until 1820 by King George III.
Feature image by Freddy Kearney on Unsplash.