The Top 11 Most Challenged Books Of 2025
T
he American Library Association recently released its Top 11 Most Challenged Books List of 2025, as part of their State of American Libraries report. Of the 4,235 unique titles challenged, 1,671 (40%) of them represent the lived experience of LGBTQIA+ individuals and people of color. [1]
Why does that matter? As Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. points out:
What and how we remember — and what and who we exclude from our stories — matter, because those memories and stories shape how we act today and how we fight for our future.[2]
The Top 11 Most Challenged Books
During 2025 Were:
Six of these books are new to the ALA’s Most Challenged List: A Clockwork Orange, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Empire of Storms, Identical, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, and Storm and Fury .
Lamentably, the list includes a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (NBAYPL) winner (Last Night at the Telegraph Club), an NBAYPL finalist (Sold), as well as a Printz Award winner (Looking for Alaska).[3] So, we’re talking quality works that students are being denied access to. Books that speak to issues they may be struggling with as they are coming into their own.
As ALA president Sam Helmick points out, “Libraries exist to make space for every story and every lived experience.” [4] And the extreme amount of book banning these days flies in the face of that all-inclusive, community-building purpose.
Pair this with
Endnotes:
[1] “American Library Association releases 2025 Most Challenged Books List as National Library Week Begins.” https://www.ala.org/news/2026/04/american-library-association-releases-2025-most-challenged-books-list-national-library
[2]Eddie S. Glaude Jr. America, U.S.A. How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries. Crown: New York, 2026. Pg 12.
[3]“’Sold’ Tops the List of 11 Most Banned Books of 2025.” School Library Journal. April 20, 2026. https://www.slj.com/story/Sold-Tops-List-11-Most-Challenged-Books-2025
[4] “American Library Association releases 2025 Most Challenged Books List as National Library Week Begins.” https://www.ala.org/news/2026/04/american-library-association-releases-2025-most-challenged-books-list-national-library
Book Resumes are from American Library Association. “Most Challenged Books.” https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
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