--- title: Gender Queer Tops the American Library Association's Ranking of the Most Challenged Books Since 1990 description: Gender Queer tops ALA's list of the 150 most challenged books since 1990, released for Banned Books Week. Ellen Hopkins has 14 titles on it. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-10-05T23:09:31.043Z updated: 2026-10-05T23:09:31.050Z canonical: https://thequantumoflight.com/article/ala-most-challenged-books-1990-2025-gender-queer image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/ala-banned-books-display-396766.webp categories: Literary Culture content_type: News region: United States publication: The Quantum of Light schema_type: Article --- Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe is the most challenged book in American libraries and schools since 1990, according to a ranking the American Library Association published on Oct. 5. George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue is second and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye third. ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom ranked the 150 books most often targeted for removal or restriction from 1990, when it began tracking censorship, through 2025. The last five titles tie, so [the full ranked list](https://ala150.org/alas-anniversary-meets-a-critical-moment-for-the-right-to-read/) runs to 153 books. ALA published it during Banned Books Week, which runs Oct. 4 to 10, and a day before its own 150th anniversary on Oct. 6. The ranking adds up challenges from every year since 1990, and ALA has recorded far more of them recently: challenges to 4,235 unique titles in 2025, against an average of 273 a year from 2001 to 2020. Four of the ranking's top 10 were also in ALA's top 10 for 2025 alone. Patricia McCormick's SOLD was first that year with 36 challenges, The Perks of Being a Wallflower second with 33, Gender Queer third with 25 and John Green's Looking for Alaska tied for eighth with 21. ## Ellen Hopkins Has 14 Books on the List, More Than Any Other Author By our count of ALA's list, Ellen Hopkins has 14 of the 153 titles, among them Tricks at No. 11, Crank at No. 13, Identical, Glass and Traffick. Sarah J. Maas has nine, led by A Court of Mist and Fury at No. 16, with A Court of Thorns and Roses, Empire of Storms and House of Earth and Blood among the rest. Lauren Myracle has six, including ttyl and yolo, and Tiffany D. Jackson and Elana K. Arnold have three each. In ALA's count for 2025 alone, Sarah's Empire of Storms was fourth with 24 challenges and A Court of Thorns and Roses seventh with 22. Ellen's Tricks tied for fifth with 23, and Identical tied for eighth with 21. ## To Kill a Mockingbird Ranks No. 65 and Harry Potter No. 40 Among the classics, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is No. 23 and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men No. 39. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is No. 65 and J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye No. 108. The Harry Potter series, No. 1 on ALA's ranking for 2000 to 2009, is No. 40 on the new list. Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, No. 1 for 2010 to 2019, is No. 6. Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories series, No. 1 for the 1990s, appears on the new list as two separate volumes, at No. 89 and No. 104. ## Pressure Groups and Officials Started 92% of Challenges in 2025, ALA Says ALA reports that pressure groups, government officials and decision makers started 92% of book challenges in 2025, up from 72% in 2024, and that fewer than 3% came from individual parents. Challengers who submitted lists of books accounted for 94% of the titles challenged, and school library materials made up 80% of the titles targeted, according to [the 2025 data ALA released in April](https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data). Of the books challenged in 2025, ALA documented 5,668 removed from libraries and another 920 restricted, for example moved to another section or made available only with a parent's permission. The office says that is the most titles censored in any year from 1990 to 2025. It also estimates that between 82% and 97% of challenges are never reported to it. ## Banned Books Week Ends With Let Freedom Read Day on Oct. 10 ALA started Banned Books Week in 1982, after a sudden rise in challenges in libraries, schools and bookstores. Judith Krug, the first director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, which ALA founded in 1967, helped set it up. "Every book on this list is a reminder that readers have the right to explore ideas and decide for themselves what to read," said Maria McCauley, ALA's president. "For 150 years, ALA has worked alongside library workers to keep that choice open to everyone." Libraries, bookstores and schools are holding local events through the week, which ends on Saturday, Oct. 10, with Let Freedom Read Day. ALA is asking readers to take at least one action that day against censorship or in support of library workers, authors, educators and booksellers. ## FAQ **Q: Which other books were among the most challenged in 2025?** ALA's top 10 for 2025 also included Malinda Lo's Last Night at the Telegraph Club, which tied for fifth with 23 challenges, and Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange and Jennifer L. Armentrout's Storm and Fury, which both tied for eighth. **Q: What are the top 10 most challenged books in America?** ALA's 1990 to 2025 ranking lists them in this order: Gender Queer: A Memoir, All Boys Aren't Blue, The Bluest Eye, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Looking for Alaska, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, This Book Is Gay, Flamer, SOLD, and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. **Q: What is the difference between a challenged book and a banned book?** ALA defines a challenge as "an attempt to remove or restrict access to materials or services based upon the objections of a person or group." In ALA's count, a book is banned when it is removed from a library, and in 2025 that happened to 66% of the books challenged. **Q: What is the theme for Banned Books Week 2026?** The theme is "Let Books Be. Protect the Freedom to Read." The week runs from Oct. 4 to Oct. 10, 2026.