More than 70 percent of book challenges in 2024 came from organized groups and government officials, according to the 2025 State of America’s Libraries Report by the American Library Association (ALA).
Seventy-two percent of book challenges were from organizations or government entities including administrators or elected officials. Only 16 percent were from parents, and 5 percent were from those who frequently go to the library.
“The movement to ban books is not a movement of parents, but a movement of partisans who seek to limit our freedom to read and make different choices about things that matter,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “All who care about libraries and personal liberty must stand together and join the movement to halt this assault on the freedom to read."
The number of overall book challenges in ALA's counting was down last year: 821 compared to 1,247 in 2023. 2024, however, still had the third highest number of censorship attempts since the ALA began tracking this in 1990.
Reasons that groups or individuals have challenged books include concerns over obscenity for minors, LGBTQ characters or themes and topics such as social justice or racism.
The top 10 most-challenged books are similar to previous years with number one “All Boys Aren't Blue,” number two “Gender Queer” and number three a tie between “The Bluest Eye” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” followed by “Tricks.”
The ALA says the number of books challenged is likely higher than its official count because there are issues with underreporting, libraries pulling books before the titles have a chance to ever be challenged and legislation now officially banning certain books.
Multiple Republican states now have laws around what type of books can be in schools.
