Most Challenged Children's Books: A Factual Content Breakdown
March 8, 2026
The ALA tracks the most challenged children's and YA books each year. Here is a factual content breakdown of what each one actually contains.
Every year, the American Library Association publishes a list of the most challenged books in the United States. "Challenged" means a formal request was made to remove or restrict a book from a library, school, or classroom. The list does not record whether those challenges succeeded or how widespread the objections were.
The books that appear repeatedly on that list come from different genres, age groups, and decades. Some are picture books aimed at kindergarteners. Some are memoirs written for teenagers. Some are literary fiction that has been taught in high school classrooms for generations. What they share is that someone, somewhere, formally objected to their content and put that objection in writing.
The reasons for those challenges vary considerably. Some involve explicit sexual content. Some involve themes related to race or identity. Some involve language. One involves bathroom humor. Understanding what is actually in these books, rather than what the surrounding conversation implies is in them, is useful regardless of where a parent stands on any of the underlying debates.
This post covers ten of the most frequently challenged children's and young adult titles from recent years. Where available, the content theme breakdowns below are drawn directly from the ParentsPick database — the same analysis that powers the app. No judgment is offered about whether the content is appropriate. That determination belongs to each parent, for each child, at each stage of their development.
1. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
Format: Graphic memoir. Intended for older teens and adults.
Themes detected by ParentsPick: LGBTQ identity · Sexual content · Gender role themes · Violence
This book is a memoir told in illustrated panels depicting the author's experience of sexual and gender identity. The ParentsPick analysis flags LGBTQ identity as present with high confidence, noting the memoir centers on Maia Kobabe's experiences growing up as a nonbinary and asexual person, providing representation of nonbinary identity. Sexual content is also flagged at high confidence: the book contains frank discussions about sexuality, including illustrations and descriptions of sexual activity. The graphic memoir format means the sexual content appears as images, not text alone.
Gender role themes are flagged at high confidence. The memoir critiques traditional gender roles by illustrating the author's struggle with gender identity and the desire to exist outside the binary of male and female. The violence flag (medium confidence) relates to illustrations of hormone therapy medication and references to medical intervention related to gender transition.
The book has topped the ALA's most challenged list in multiple consecutive years, making it the most formally challenged book in recent American library history.
2. All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
Format: Young adult memoir. Intended for teens.
Themes detected by ParentsPick: Race · LGBTQ identity · Sexual content · Violence · Profanity · Gender role themes · Frightening content
This is a memoir covering the author's childhood and adolescence as a Black, queer man. The ParentsPick analysis flags race at high confidence: the memoir discusses the author's experiences growing up Black and queer, highlighting the intersection of these identities and societal challenges faced. LGBTQ identity is flagged at high confidence, framing the author's journey of understanding their queer identity within the context of community and self-definition.
Sexual content is flagged at high confidence — the database notes the book contains descriptions of consensual sex and a sexual assault, not presented in an erotic manner, alongside broader themes of sex, sexuality, and consent. Violence is flagged at high confidence, citing an account of a 5-year-old being attacked by older children and descriptions of racial violence. Profanity is flagged at medium confidence. Gender role themes are flagged at high confidence, noting the book interrogates compulsory heterosexuality and societal gender expectations.
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Format: Young adult novel, epistolary format. Intended for teens.
Themes detected by ParentsPick: LGBTQ identity · Sexual content · Violence · Profanity · Gender role themes
This novel is written as a series of letters from a high school freshman. The ParentsPick analysis flags LGBTQ identity at high confidence, noting the book features a character named Patrick who is openly gay and engages in a secret homosexual romance. Sexual content is flagged at high confidence: the narrative contains mature sexual content including depictions of characters engaging in sexual activities, references to an abortion, and discussions of past sexual abuse. The sexual abuse storyline involves a family member and is presented as a central element of the narrator's psychological state throughout the book.
Violence is flagged at high confidence. Profanity is flagged at high confidence, described as frequent and reflecting realistic teenage dialogue. Gender role themes are flagged at medium confidence, relating to how male characters are portrayed as struggling with emotional expression.
The book has appeared on challenged lists for more than two decades and remains one of the most consistently challenged YA novels in the ALA's records.
4. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
Format: Young adult historical fiction. Set in 1930s Texas.
Themes detected by ParentsPick: Race · LGBTQ identity · Sexual content · Violence · Profanity · Gender role themes · Frightening content
This novel is set against the backdrop of a 1937 school explosion in New London, Texas. The ParentsPick analysis flags race at high confidence, noting the book addresses racism and racial brutality in a 1930s Texas setting, depicting the impact of societal prejudice on the characters' lives. Sexual content is flagged at high confidence: the story includes a physically intimate relationship between two teenage characters, progressing to oral sex, and contains a depiction of sexual assault.
Violence is flagged at high confidence, citing a near-lynching of a Black character and the tragic explosion that kills many students. Profanity is flagged at high confidence, noting the use of racial slurs and explicit language reflecting the characters' environment. The book also contains LGBTQ themes (high confidence) within the context of the interracial love story's emotional complexity, and gender role themes relating to the vulnerability of women in the period setting.
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Format: Young adult novel. Semi-autobiographical.
Themes detected by ParentsPick: Race · Sexual content · Violence · Profanity · Religious themes
This novel follows a Native American teenager who transfers from his reservation school to an all-white school in a nearby town. The ParentsPick analysis flags race at high confidence, noting the book explores racism and the experience of a Native American boy navigating life in a predominantly white school, including the limitations imposed by poverty and systemic barriers.
Sexual content is flagged at high confidence: the book contains references to kissing, sexual thoughts, and masturbation, discussing the main character's sexual feelings and experiences in a comedic register. Profanity is flagged at high confidence, including strong language and derogatory terms used in context. Violence is flagged at high confidence, noting deaths of close characters and a racially charged incident involving the use of the N-word. Religious themes are flagged at medium confidence, relating to references to the Washani religion, which combines traditional Native spirituality with Christian elements.
The book won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2007 and has been challenged in school districts across multiple states since its publication.
6. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Format: Adult literary fiction, read in some YA and school contexts.
Lawn Boy is not currently in the ParentsPick database. The content description below is drawn from ALA challenge documentation.
This novel follows a young man of Pomo Indian heritage working landscape jobs in the Pacific Northwest. The challenge cited by the ALA references explicit sexual content, including recalled sexual experiences between male characters that are depicted in detail. The book also contains profanity and themes related to class and economic struggle. The passages that drew challenges involve sexual acts described between male characters, some of which are recalled as childhood experiences.
Some parents have raised concerns about the explicit nature of these passages. The book is classified as adult fiction but has appeared in some school reading contexts.
7. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Format: Adult literary fiction. Frequently taught in high school and college courses.
The Bluest Eye does not currently have a canonical record in the ParentsPick database. The content description below is drawn from the book itself and ALA challenge documentation.
This novel, first published in 1970, is set in Lorain, Ohio in 1941 and follows a young Black girl. The content that prompted challenges includes a graphic depiction of rape and incest, as a father rapes his daughter, which is described in detail. The book also contains depictions of racism and racial self-hatred, child sexual abuse, and explicit sexual content involving adult characters. The racial themes include internalized racism and colorism within the Black community during that period.
The book has appeared on challenged lists across multiple decades and continues to generate formal objections in school settings.
8. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Format: Young adult novel. Intended for teens.
Themes detected by ParentsPick: Sexual content · Violence · Profanity · Frightening content
This novel follows a high school freshman in the aftermath of a sexual assault that occurred at a party before the school year began. The ParentsPick analysis flags sexual content at high confidence: the story involves the rape of a teenage girl, with the assault depicted on the page. Frightening content is flagged at high confidence, described as a sobering look at high school life and the mental anguish experienced by a survivor of sexual assault. Violence is flagged at high confidence, noting two key scenes featuring expressionistic violence and the book's unflinching treatment of rape and its aftermath.
Profanity is flagged at high confidence, described as moderate swearing typical of high-schoolers, including words like "bitch," "hell," "damn," and "bullshit."
Some challenges have cited the sexual assault content as inappropriate for school settings. Others have argued the book's subject matter is directly relevant to teen readers.
9. Captain Underpants Series by Dav Pilkey
Format: Children's illustrated chapter books. Intended for ages 6-10.
Themes detected by ParentsPick: Race · LGBTQ identity · Violence
This long-running series follows two elementary school students who hypnotize their principal into believing he is a superhero named Captain Underpants. The ParentsPick analysis flags race at high confidence, noting the series has faced criticism for perpetuating passive racism, particularly in a spin-off book that was pulled due to harmful racial stereotypes. LGBTQ identity is flagged at high confidence: one character, Harold, is depicted as gay or bisexual, with this aspect of his identity presented as a matter of fact rather than a source of conflict. Violence is flagged for the series' cartoonish slapstick content, including fights and encounters with villains.
The challenges cited in ALA data differ from most on this list: the primary objections recorded reference bathroom humor throughout the books, mild cartoon violence, and concerns that the books encourage disrespect toward authority figures. The series appears on challenged lists regularly and is one of the few examples of a challenged book primarily aimed at early elementary readers rather than teens.
10. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Format: Children's picture book. Intended for ages 4-8.
Themes detected by ParentsPick: LGBTQ identity · Sexual content (age-appropriate)
This picture book is based on a documented incident at the Central Park Zoo in New York, where two male chinstrap penguins, Roy and Silo, formed a bonded pair and were given a fertilized egg to hatch and raise. The ParentsPick analysis flags LGBTQ identity at high confidence, describing the book as depicting a same-sex relationship between the two male penguins and their shared parenting of a chick named Tango.
Sexual content is flagged at medium confidence — the database notes the book introduces the concept of same-sex relationships in an age-appropriate manner, allowing families to discuss love and acceptance, and explicitly notes the book does not contain explicit sexual content. The entire content of the book involves two penguins raising a chick together.
The book has appeared on ALA challenged lists for more than fifteen years and is one of the most frequently challenged picture books in the organization's records.
What the Challenge List Represents
The ALA's most challenged books list captures formal, documented challenges — requests submitted in writing to a library or school district. Many more objections occur informally and are never counted. A book appearing on the list means someone filed a complaint; it does not indicate how many people objected, whether the challenge was upheld, or how widely the book is actually read.
The books above span picture books through adult literary fiction. They cover sexual content, sexual violence, LGBTQ themes, racial content, profanity, and bathroom humor. The reasons for challenges are not uniform, and neither are the audiences the books are written for.
One important distinction in the list above: some of these books are written for adults and have found their way into school settings secondarily. Others were written specifically for children or teenagers. A parent's calculus about a graphic memoir written for adults appearing in a middle school library is likely different from their calculus about a picture book written for four-year-olds. The challenge list does not make that distinction explicit; the content descriptions above try to.
How to Use This Information
Knowing a book appears on a challenged list tells you that at least one person objected to its content. It does not tell you what the content actually is, how explicit it is, how central it is to the book, or whether it is appropriate for your child at their specific age and reading level.
The theme breakdowns above — drawn from the ParentsPick database where available — are a starting point. For more detail on any of these titles or any other book your child is reading, the ParentsPick app provides a full breakdown across nine content themes: violence, scary content, religious themes, feminist and gender themes, racial and cultural content, profanity, death and loss, climate change, and sexual identity. Scan the ISBN or search by title to see what a specific book contains.
Every family draws its own lines. The data is there to help you draw them accurately.
ParentsPick analyzes 9,496 children's and young adult books across 9 content themes. Search any title or scan an ISBN to see a factual content breakdown.