Top Banned Books, 2006 List

The American Library Association's Office of Intellection Freedom has released the list of the books most frequently challenged in 2006. They tracked a total of 546 challenges—formal written complaints made to a library or (more often) school asking that a book be removed— last year. They estimate that for each occasion reported to their office there may be four or five more that libraries deal with on their own.

The ten most frequently challenged titles were:

• And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
• Gossip Girls series by Cecily Von Ziegesar
• Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz
• Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier