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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
The Most Challenged Books in the US in 2025
The American Library Association has released its list of the most challenged books in U.S. libraries in 2025. Here are the top ten (okay, eleven):
1. Sold by Patricia McCormick
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
5. (tie) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. (tie) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
8. (tie) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
8. (tie) Identical by Ellen Hopkins
8. (tie) Looking for Alaska by John Green
8. (tie) Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My colleague Kelly Jensen has already written about this list in more depth, so I’m going to zero in on the book in the number one spot. (Warning: I will be discussing child sexual abuse and slavery.)
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Sold was was published in 2006, and it is about a 13-year-old girl who is sold into sex slavery in India. In 2023, Patricia McCormick wrote an article in The New York Times titled “My Book Is Horrifying. My Book Is a Lifeline. My Book Is Banned.” In it, she describes how the book is based on interviews she had with girls in India and Nepal who were sold into slavery. Sold includes a description of a 13-year-old being sexually assaulted by an older man—which book banners erroneously claimed was “pornography.”
McCormick shared how students reacted to this book in school visits:
At nearly all the visits, students come forward to say that they have been sexually abused or are being sexually abused — and that seeing their experience rendered in a book finally emboldened them to say so. Some linger around after book signings and whisper to me privately; I encourage them to tell a trusted adult. One girl and I walked to the guidance counselor’s office together.
But a surprising number of readers — boys and girls — open up right in class. I always brace for a nervous or inappropriate reaction from the other children in the classroom. I wait for someone to laugh or scoff or gasp. They never do. They unfailingly treat such painful revelations with respect and empathy. Meanwhile, their teachers step in to provide help for a problem they may not have otherwise known about.
Far from “protecting children,” banning books prevents kids and teens from finding support, understanding, and community. As anyone who read Book Riot already knows, books save lives—and often, it’s those “uncomfortable” books that are the most needed.
Watch the Practical Magic 2 Trailer Now
Get any fair-sized group of book lovers together, and there’s going to be at least one person in it who is obsessed with Practical Magic—the original book and/or the movie. When I worked at a bookstore, I had several coworkers who got together for a Practical Magic-themed party every year. So, it no surprise that when the teaser trailer for Practical Magic 2 dropped, there were a lot of muppet arms in the Book Riot chat. While revisiting beloved properties can be risky, this one is looking promising. It’s based on The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman; is produced by Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, and Denise Di Novi; and it has Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman reprising their roles as the Owens sisters. Mark your calendars to gather your witchy and bookish friends in theaters in September!
Fans of The Pitt‘s Jack Abbott Have an Audiobook to Look Forward To
I’m already mourning my weekly The Pitt episode, and my social media feeds are full of associated content, from interviews to fan theories and fanvids. So, I can confidently say there is definitely an audience for the audio erotica narrated by Shawn Hatosy that is coming to the Quinn app today. Hatosy plays fan favorite The Pitt character Jack Abbott, and the CEO of Quinn said “Shawn is one of our most requested narrators ever.” Despite The Pitt taking place in one of the least sexy settings imaginable, that has not stopped it from generating an extremely thirsty fanbase. And Quinn knows exactly what they’re doing by casting Hatosy: just look at this teaser video on Instagram.
A Modern Masterpiece
On the new episode of Zero to Well-Read, Jeff and Rebecca tackle a new classic. Percival Everett won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his novel James, a modern masterpiece that retells The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man who accompanies Huck on his journey down the Mississippi River. This week, Jeff and Rebecca discuss what Everett does with Jim’s interiority and intelligence that Twain couldn’t, how the novel’s central conceit literalizes W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of double consciousness, and how Everett pulled off making a book that is layered and intellectually rich into a genuine page-turner.
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