The American Library Association (ALA) released its 2015 list of the 10 “most challenged” books on Monday.
The ranking is based on 275 challenges, meaning “a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness,” the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) said in a statement, as part of an annual report on the “State of America’s Libraries.” A challenge doesn’t necessarily mean the book was censored, with outcomes varying per school.
Below is the full list, including complaints about each title:
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”).
Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group.
Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”).
Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
Reasons: Religious viewpoint.
Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”).
Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence.
Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).
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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com