Book Series From This Edgar Allan Poe Award-Winning Author Was Among the Most Banned Books of the 2000s

We're certainly no strangers to banned and challenged books. During the first decade of the 20th century, the Harry Potter series was constantly talked about and banned. Yet, it wasn't the only series that parents, governments, schools, and more were against. The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor became one of the most-banned book series of the decade.

According to the American Library Association, the books, of which there are now 28 in the series, were the second most-banned books from 2000 to 2009, just behind Harry Potter. However, the banning of the series actually started a decade earlier, and continued all the way until 2019 (at least!).

The ‘Alice' Series Was Too ‘Candid'

Something that probably isn't surprising is that the Alice series was challenged due to the topics within the story. There were candid portrayals of sexuality, puberty, and health education. After all, this was a series about a young girl growing up, and we got to read about her relationships with her parents, siblings, friends, and much more.

Many weren't happy with the detailed descriptions of menstruation, and there were others unhappy with the discussion of sexuality, including some LGBTQ+ themes. Unsurprisingly, "explicit language" also came up.

The National Coalition Against Censorship stood up for Naylor, who would go on to win the Edgar Allan Poe Award for a novel in a different series of books, sharing that the portrayal was accurate and important for children to learn about. While there were still bans against younger children, the series was allowed for higher grades.

‘The Agony of Alice' Was Never Intended to Start a Series

The Agony of Alice was the first of the novels, published in 1985. Naylor made it clear that it was never supposed to be a series, sharing with Publishers Weekly in 2002 that she "just wanted to write about a motherless girl looking for a role model who finds it not in the most beautiful teacher at school, the one she had hoped to get, but in the homeliest."

The story became a chance to reflect on her own personal moments, and it would end up being the foundation of a 28-book series. Each of the books takes us through Alice through the ages, starting in the Sixth Grade and running through to the summer before college in Alice on Board, which was published in 2012.

Now I'll Tell You Everything concluded the series in 2013, bringing us details of Alice from the age of 18 through to her 60s.

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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 5:10 AM.