Book Ban data from the ALA 2024

[s.penkevich [mental health hiatus]]

Today for National Library Week, the American Library Association released their annual State of the Library Report which details a rather alarming growth in attempts to infringe intellectual freedoms and speech or harm public institutions. The new data shows an alarming 65% surge from the previous year for a total of 1, 247 demands to remove 4,240 unique titles among other library services. This represents a 92% increase in titles challenged in public libraries while schools saw an 11% increase. For context, the previous year’s data revealed 700 attempts to ban 1,915 titles.

The top 10 most banned and challenged books of the year have also been released. :

1.Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
2.All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
3.This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
4.The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
5.Flamer by Mike Curato
6.The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
7.Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
8.Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
9.Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human by Erika Moen & Matthew Nolan
10.Sold by Patricia McCormick