Banned Books Week 2026
It's Banned Books Week!
The American Library Association documented 487 attempts to censor books at libraries, schools, and universities in 2025. The reasons most commonly cited for censorship were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ representation; covering topics of race, racism, social justice, and diversity; and presenting political or religious views with which the challengers disagreed. Of the 4,235 unique titles that were challenged or banned in 2025, here are the top 11 most frequently targeted.
#1
Sold by Patricia McCormick
SYNOPSIS
Lakshmi is 13 years old. She lives with her family in Nepal. One day, a bad storm ruins their farm. Her family needs money. Her stepfather tells her she must go find a job. He hands her over to a stranger. This stranger says Lakshmi will be a maid in a big city.
Lakshmi travels to India. She arrives at a place called "Happiness House." At first, she feels hopeful. Then, she learns an awful truth. The stranger lied. She was tricked and sold. Her new life is cruel and scary. She is trapped.
Still, she remembers her mother's words. Her mother said that just staying alive is a win. Slowly, Lakshmi makes friends with the other girls there. They help her stay strong. One day, she must make a hard choice. Will she risk everything to be free?
This powerful book is told in short poems. It shows a very real and scary world. But it is also about a brave girl who wants her freedom back.
AUTHOR STATEMENT
To ban this book is to erase the young people around the world who are currently enslaved. To ban this book is a disservice to the women who shared their stories with me so the world could know about their plight. And to ban this book is disrespectful to the young readers who want to know about the world as it is – so they can make a difference. But, perhaps most important, to ban this book is to take away a lifeline for readers who are experiencing abuse. These kids know what adults often don’t. Books aren’t the problem; they are part of the solution.
#2
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
SYNOPSIS
This book by Stephen Chbosky is about a quiet boy named Charlie. It follows him as he grows up. The story is about first dates, family fights, and making new friends. It also talks about hard topics, sad times, and young love. Charlie feels stuck. He wants to live his life, but he also wants to hide. He must learn how to handle the wild feelings of growing up.
AUTHOR STATEMENT
This book is my love letter and wish for every kid who is struggling with identity, because at the time I was writing it, I was struggling with my own.
Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.
#3
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
SYNOPSIS
In 2014, Maia Kobabe wrote a comic about reading. Maia uses e/em/eir pronouns. At the time, e thought it would be eir last comic about eir own life. Back then, that was all e wanted strangers to know about em.
Then, e wrote a book called Gender Queer. This deeply personal story shows Maia figuring out who e is. It talks about the confusing feelings of teen crushes. It shows how hard it was to come out to family and the world. It also talks about making friends and dealing with scary doctor visits.
Maia started the book to help eir family understand what it means to be nonbinary and asexual. But Gender Queer became much more. It is a helpful and touching guide. It helps friends, supporters, and people everywhere learn what gender identity means and how to think about it.
AUTHOR STATEMENT
“Queer youth are often forced to look outside their own homes, and outside the education system, to find information on who they are. Removing or restricting queer books in libraries and schools is like cutting a lifeline for queer youth, who might not yet even know what terms to ask Google to find out more about their own identities, bodies and health.
#4
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
SYNOPSIS
The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves increasingly at odds with those who don't.
With her heart sworn to the warrior-prince by her side and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save, Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, dark forces stand poised to claim her world. The only chance for salvation lies in a desperate quest that may take more from Aelin than she has to give, a quest that forces her to choose what-and who-she's willing to sacrifice for the sake of peace.
#5 (TIE)
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
SYNOPSIS
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the feeling took root— that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.
But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hardwon citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
SYNOPSIS
Meet five teens: Eden Streit, Seth Parnell, Whitney Lang, Ginger Cordell, and Cody Bennett. They're from different walks of life--some are rich; some are poor; some are from nuclear families; others are not. Regardless of upbringing, they share common needs: love, acceptance, safety, and family. Eden has a secret love affair and is the daughter of a hellfire-and-brimstone preaching father; Seth, aching over the death of his mother, is a gay farm kid and hides his sexuality from his father; Whitney is good-looking and smart, but lives in the shadow of her "better" older sister and her critical mother and semi-absent father; Ginger lives in poverty with her drug-using, sexually deviant, and abusive mother; and Cody, suffering the loss of his stepfather, shoulders his mother's emotional and financial needs. All five are betrayed or "tricked" by someone they love and turn down brutal paths in which they experience even deeper deception. What will they do to be loved? To survive? Can they return home? Their stories begin in alternating vignettes and interweave into one explosive Las Vegas ending.
#7
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
SYNOPSIS
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he's not a beast all the time.
As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.
From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.
#8 (TIE)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
SYNOPSIS
In Anthony Burgess’s influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends’ intense reaction against their society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom.
Identical by Ellen Hopkins
SYNOPSIS
Sixteen-year-old Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family…on the surface. Underneath run very deep and damaging secrets. What really happened in the car accident that Daddy caused? And why is Mom never home, always running far away to pursue some new dream?
The girls themselves have become hopelessly divided over the years. Sick of losing Daddy’s game of favorites, Raeanne turns to painkillers, alcohol, and sex to dull her pain and anger. Kaeleigh tries to be her father’s perfect little flower, but being the misplaced focus of his sexual attention has her seeking control anywhere she can— even if it means cutting herself and unhealthy binge and purge eating.
Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept—from each other or anyone else. Before long, it's obvious that neither sister can handle their problems alone, and one must step up to save the other, but the question is…who?
AUTHOR STATEMENT
“Identical tackles perhaps the most difficult subject matter of all. It is about identical twins whose father is sexually abusing one of them. I chose this subject matter because the issue touched the lives of three of my friends. Today, they are successful, beautiful women who you would never believe this might have happened to. I want readers to know it is possible to find a way beyond this terrible place, into a brighter future."
"Censorship comes from a place of fear. We fear that which is different, what we cannot comprehend. Books gift us with understanding, empower us with knowledge. So, obviously, would-be censors have it all wrong."
Looking for Alaska by John Green
SYNOPSIS
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A modern classic, this stunning debut marked #1 bestselling author John Green’s arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction.
AUTHOR STATEMENT
"There's this reality of the organization in question being called Moms for Liberty, when what they're trying to do is restrict the liberty of other people's kids to read what librarians and teachers deem appropriate for those other people's kids to read," he said. "Also — I mean, of course I might be wrong, books belong to their readers — but I just don't think 'Looking for Alaska' is pornography. And I think reading it that way is a little weird."
Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
SYNOPSIS
Eighteen-year-old Trinity Marrow may be going blind, but she can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits. Her unique gift is part of a secret so dangerous that she’s been in hiding for years in an isolated compound fiercely guarded by Wardens—gargoyle shape-shifters who protect humankind from demons. If the demons discover the truth about Trinity, they’ll devour her, flesh and bone, to enhance their own powers. When Wardens from another clan arrive with disturbing reports that something out there is killing both demons and Wardens, Trinity’s safe world implodes. Not the least because one of the outsiders is the most annoying and fascinating person she’s ever met. Zayne has secrets of his own that will upend her world yet again—but working together becomes imperative once demons breach the compound and Trinity’s secret comes to light. To save her family and maybe the world, she’ll have to put her trust in Zayne. But all bets are off as a supernatural war is unleashed…