Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir “Gender Queer” remains the most controversial book in the country, topping the American Library Association’s “challenged books” list for the third year in a row.
Kobabe’s Gender Queer was released in 2019
Kobabe’s coming-of-age story was released in 2019 and won the Library Association’s Alex Award for best young adult literature. However, it has subsequently become the focus of discussions over library content, with conservative organizations like Moms for Liberty arguing that parents should have more control over what books are available. Politicians have condemned “Gender Queer” and school systems in Florida, Texas, and elsewhere have banned it.
Last December, police in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, responded to a custodian’s complaint about the book by showing up and searching for it in an eighth-grade classroom.
The ALA announced its ranking on Monday, along with its annual State of America’s Libraries report.
“A few advocacy groups have made ‘Gender Queer’ a lightning rod,” says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. ”People are trying to shut down conversation about gender identity.”
Many of the books challenged (47%) contain LGBTQ and racist content
Many books on the ALA’s top ten snapshot had LGBTQ themes, including the four books immediately after “Gender Queer”: George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Juno Dawson’s “This Book is Gay,” Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and Mike Curato’s “Flamer.”
The other five books on the list were all cited as sexually explicit: Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Ellen Hopkins’ “Tricks,” Jesse Andrews “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan’s “Let’s Talk About It” and Patricia McCormick’s “Sold.”
“These books are beyond the pale for some people simply because they touch upon sex,” Caldwell-Stone says.
The ALA stated in March that bans and attempted bans in 2023 had reached new highs since the organization began tracking complaints in the early 2000s. More than 4,240 works in school and public libraries were targeted, up from a previous record of 2,571 books in 2022.
Many of the books challenged (47%) contain LGBTQ and racist content.
The American Library Association (ALA) describes a challenge as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.”