According to ALA, 2019 saw an alarming uptick in challenged books that included or addressed LGBTQ+ content.
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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As part of 2020’s American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week (which concludes Saturday, October 3), the organization has released a list of the 100 most banned and challenged books of the last decade, from 2010 through 2019.
“ALA officials stress that the annual report provides only a snapshot of book challenges,” says Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer. “ALA also acknowledges that most challenges to books go unreported.”
Leaders on the Top 100 list are (in order) Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey; Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Looking for Alaska by John Green, and the most challenged book of 2019, George, by Alex Gino.
“The recent trends are alarming,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “Last year, for example the ALA reported a 17% increase in the number of challenges to library, school, and university materials and services—with an alarming uptick in the number of challenged books that included or addressed LGBTQ+ content.”
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
