Last year's Top 10 challenged books

Once again, And Tango Makes Three topped list of most challenged books as reported to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom.

There were 513 challenges reported to the ALA in 2008. Top 10 list is below.

In honor of Banned Books Week, you might poke around some statistics to find out who challenges books in the U.S. and the reasons they give (spoiler for those of you too lazy to click: it's most often a parent asking a book be removed from a school library because of the book's sexual explicitness, age appropriateness or language).

Last year, I wrote this column about the difference between saying your child isn't ready to read a certain book and saying no one's child should have the chance to read it. Ditto this year.

Most challenged books of 2008:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell  -  Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman -- Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle -- Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz -- Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya -- Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky -- Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar -- Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8. Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen -- Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini -- Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper -- Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group