Children’s series Captain Underpants has topped the list of Frequently Challenged Books. A challenged work is one that receives a formal, written complaint directed towards a “library or school”, requesting that the book “be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness.” The figures are compiled annually by the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, who also run a Banned Book Week every September to promote "the freedom to read".
While a majority of the books made the list as a result of sexually explicit or controversial subject matter (frequently challenged content includes ones with themes of religion, homosexuality or racism), the most challenged offender is a series of lighthearted children’s novels. Dav Pikey’s ten-book Captain Underpants series – a book that has often appeared on the ALA’s list since the early 2000s – has attracted the most complaints as a result of “offensive language” and being “unsuited for age group.”
The books, noted for their toilet humour and irreverent tone, have sold over 50 million copies since the first book was released in 1997. The series returned in August 2012 following a six-year hiatus, with the tenth entry published in early 2013.
From penguins to Fifty Shades
Other children’s book to make the list included And Tango Makes Three (a picture book about a male penguin couple in New York Zoo that has been a regular presence on the list since its publication in 2005) and the Scary Stories series (the last of which was published in 1991, although was reprinted in 2011).
The popular Fifty Shades of Grey was the fourth most challenged book, with it and its sequels having been subject to bannings by the library boards in a number of districts of Florida, Georgia and Wisconsin states.
A majority of 2011’s most challenged books – including The Hunger Games and the ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r series – do not feature on the 2012 list. Sherman Alexie’s acclaimed young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is the only book to appear on both lists for "offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group".
The full report can be read on the ALA's website.
The top ten most challenged books
- Captain Underpants(series), by Dav Pilkey
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
- Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
- Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
- And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
- The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
- Looking for Alaska, by John Green
- Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
- The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
- Beloved, by Toni Morrison
