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Every year, the American Library Association releases a list of the most frequently challenged library books of the year and from the selections noted in the ALA’s 2012 State of America’s Libraries Report, there are some books that will never leave the list and a lot of newcomers that push the boundaries of what is seen as appropriate for school-aged children.

During the past year, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received 326 reports of “attempts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves,” the report notes. Check out the list of the 10 that were most frequently challenged, meaning a formal, written complaint was filed against it:

1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle
   Reasons: Offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
2. The Color of Earth (series) by Kim Dong Hwa
   Reasons: Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
3. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
4. My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
   Reasons: Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: Offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group
6. Alice (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
   Reasons: Nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint
7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
   Reasons: Insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit
8. What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones
   Reasons: Nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit
9. Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily Von Ziegesar
   Reasons: Drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit
10. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
    Reasons: Offensive language; racism

To Kill a Mockingbird and Brave New World are the only novels I recall causing a stir while I was in school, the others seem to be after my time, but a sign of the repeated cycle of books that come along every so often and touch on topics parents might not yet be ready for their children to explore.

What do you think about this list?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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