The American Library Association released its annual list of the most commonly challenged books at libraries across the United States in 2025. The organization documented 4,235 unique titles being challenged during the year, the second-highest annual figure on record.
The 11 most frequently challenged books of 2025 were Sold by Patricia McCormick; The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky; Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe; Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas; Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo; Tricks by Ellen Hopkins; A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas; A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; Identical by Ellen Hopkins; Looking for Alaska by John Green; and Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
The highest number of challenges on record was 4,240 in 2023, five more than in 2025. Forty percent of the materials challenged in 2025 were representations of LGBTQ+ people and people of color.
The ALA documented 713 attempts in 2025 to censor library materials and services, 487 of which targeted books. The ALA defines a book "ban" as the removal of materials, including books, from a library, and defines a "challenge" as an attempt to have a library resource removed or access to it restricted.
Ninety-two percent of all book challenges to libraries in 2025 came from pressure groups, government officials, and local decision makers. Pressure groups such as Moms for Liberty accounted for 20.8 percent of challenges, while 70.9 percent originated with government officials and other decision makers such as local board officials or administrators. Within that category, 31 percent of challenges came from elected government officials and 40 percent from board members or administrators. Only 2.7 percent of book challenges originated with parents, and 1.4 percent came from individual library users.
Fifty-one percent of challenges were attempted at public libraries, and 37 percent involved school libraries. The remaining challenges of 2025 targeted school curricula and higher education.
Many of the books on the ALA's 2025 most challenged list also appear on a PEN America report issued in October 2024–25 that examined book challenges and bans in public schools. The ALA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to American libraries and librarians.