Right to read

The American Library Association is an international nonprofit group that has advocated against censorship for more than a century. Since 1990, the organization annually compiles lists of each year’s Top Ten Most Challenged Books. The numbers are based on media stories and voluntary challenge reports—documented requests to remove books from schools or libraries—but the group believes between 82 percent and 97 percent of such challenges go unreported. The most recent list, from 2016, is based on 323 challenges recorded by the library association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. Here are the top five, all of which were challenged, in part, because they contain LGBT characters. For more details, visit www.ala.org.

1. This One Summer, by Mariko Tamaki

2. Drama, by Raina Telgemeier

3. George, by Alex Gino

4. I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings

5. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan