The top 10 most banned and challenged books of 2021 honors Banned Books Week 2022, which takes place September 18-24. In 2021 the American Library Association tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services. Some of the reasons for the books bans and challenges included LGBTQIA+, sex education, critical race theory, and non-traditional values content. Thirty-nine percent of parents initiated the bans and challenges, 24% from patrons, 18% from board/administration, and 10% from political and religious leaders. The majority of bans and challenges took place in school libraries (44%), public libraries (37%), and schools (18% percent). Of the 1,597 individual books that were challenged or banned in 2021, these are the top 10 most banned and challenged books.

Top 10 Most Banned And Challenged Books Of 2021

#10: Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin

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About the book: A groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens.

Reasons for being banned and challenged: LGBTQIA+ content; considered to be sexually explicit.

#9: This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

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About the book: Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Intersex. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who’s ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU.

Reasons for being banned, challenged, relocated, and restricted: Providing sexual education and LGBTQIA+ content.

#8: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

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About the book: From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner—a powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions about race, class, and gender with characteristic subtly and grace.

Reasons for being banned and challenged: Depicts child sexual abuse; considered sexually explicit.

#7: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

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About the book: A New York Times bestselling novel that inspired a hit film.

Reasons for being banned and challenged: Considered sexually explicit and degrading to women.

#6: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

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About the book: Chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

Reasons for being banned and challenged: Profanity, sexual references and use of a derogatory term.

#5: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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About the book: Goodreads Choice Awards Best of the Best, William C. Morris Award Winner, National Book Award Longlist, Printz Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Book, and #1 New York Times bestseller.

Reasons for being banned and challenged: Profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda.

#4: Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez

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About the book: A dangerous forbidden romance rocks a Texan oil town in 1937, when segregation was a matter of life and death.

Reasons for being banned, challenged, and restricted: Depictions of abuse; considered to be sexually explicit.

#3: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

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About the book: Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy.

Reasons for being banned and challenged: LGBTQIA+ content and profanity; considered to be sexually explicit

#2: Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

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About the book: A “10th-generation peasant with a Mexican last name, raised by a single mom on an Indian reservation”⁠—The New York Times Book Review

Reasons for being banned and challenged: LGBTQIA+ content; considered to be sexually explicit.

#1 Banned or Challenged Book of 2021: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

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About the book: “A great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand.” — SLJ (starred review)

Reasons for being banned, challenged, and restricted: LGBTQIA+ content; considered to have sexually explicit images.

Related: 25 Commonly Banned Books In 2021 and 30 Quotes From Banned Books To Celebrate Banned Books Week

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