Stephen Chbosky’s 1999 coming of age novel, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, is still making headlines more than two decades after it was written. Most recently, it has been featured in the news because it is one the most banned books across the country. 

The book follows the main character, Charlie, as he endeavors through his freshman year of high school. Perks has been a very popular book since its initial release, but not without backlash throughout America for its controversial content. 

The first time the book was banned in a school library was 2003 in Fairfax, Virginia. According to marshall.edu, it is still being banned across the country “for being sexually explicit, and having LGBTQIA+ content while mentioning rape, drugs and profanity.” Any community member can challenge a book being offered in school, and in many cases the book either gets taken to the school district or the state where it eventually becomes banned. 

In an article from ncac.org, Stephen Chbosky responds to his book being banned saying that he “was sad because you publish a book, in part, to end the silence about certain issues. But then certain people object, and they try to censor your book, and all of that is just silence.” The book deals with issues in adolescent life that many people can relate to.

Chbosky also states: “I know what the book has meant to certain kids because I’ve been getting letters from them for well over a decade. So every time this happens, I just think about that one kid in the community who could really use the book.”