Looking for Alaska named the most challenged book in the US for 2015 (2016)
story · status: followed over 5 videos (2016–2026) · last event: update (2026-03-31)
In 2016 the American Library Association named Looking for Alaska the most challenged book of 2015. Later PEN America ranked it the second most banned book in the United States (2024) and then the most banned book of the last four years (2025).
Told alongside: John: people will find a reason to ban Hollywood, Ending (2026)
About: American Library Association, Looking for Alaska (novel), book censorship, PEN America
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-04-12 | told | John reports that the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom has released its list of the ten most challenged books, and Looking for Alaska was the most challenged book of 2015. | On the Banning of Looking for Alaska 00:00:01 |
| 2022-05-03 | update | John says his books, especially Looking for Alaska and Turtles All the Way Down, have lately been removed from US libraries and schools for purported obscenity. | My Religion and My Banned Books 00:00:00 |
| 2024-12-17 | update | John says that according to PEN America, Looking for Alaska, which he wrote, is the second most banned book in the United States. | About THAT Scene in Looking for Alaska 00:00:00 |
| 2025-12-16 | update | John reports that PEN America announced Looking for Alaska, his quiet young adult novel about grief, is the most banned book in the US over the last four years. | John Green's Brother 00:00:58 |
| 2026-03-31 | update | John says his first novel, Looking for Alaska, was just banned in every single school in Utah. | I've Been Keeping a Secret… 00:02:26 |
What is said about it
9 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2026-03-31 · I've Been Keeping a Secret… — John finds it hard not to take personally: one of the people behind the ban recently told him he is a bad person, and he is pretty sure he is not. — 00:02:26
- 2016-04-12 · On the Banning of Looking for Alaska — John says the book has been challenged and banned around the country for offensive language and sexually explicit descriptions. — 00:00:18
- 2016-04-12 · On the Banning of Looking for Alaska — John supposes this is a kind of honor: the book had the same language and descriptions ten years ago but was much less likely to be banned because few people had read it. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:24
- 2016-04-12 · On the Banning of Looking for Alaska — John says Looking for Alaska beat some of his favorite books on the list, like Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. — 00:00:34
- 2016-04-12 · On the Banning of Looking for Alaska — John notes the Holy Bible came sixth on the list, joking that it does contain its fair share of explicit passages. — 00:00:41
- 2022-05-03 · My Religion and My Banned Books — John says his chaplaincy surprises many evangelical Christians, who don't understand why a fellow Christian would write books for young people that include premarital sex and alcohol abuse. — 00:00:29
- 2024-12-17 · About THAT Scene in Looking for Alaska — John says the book is taught in fewer classes because groups like Moms for Liberty have very successfully challenged it out of curricula and often out of libraries. — 00:00:29
- 2024-12-17 · About THAT Scene in Looking for Alaska — John says the novel's teenagers smoke, drink and behave self-destructively because books exist not as moral screeds but as tellers of truths. — 00:00:29
- 2024-12-17 · About THAT Scene in Looking for Alaska — John says the book is banned not for smoking or drinking but because of one one-page scene in which two teenagers engage in oral sex. — 00:00:29