The Hunger Games has been challenged in specific U.S. school and library settings, but the available records do not establish that it was banned nationwide. The distinction matters: a challenge is an attempt to restrict access; it does not by itself mean a book was removed.
Was The Hunger Games banned in the U.S.?
Not nationwide, according to the records cited here. The American Library Association (ALA) lists the novel and trilogy among frequently challenged books, and a 2013 catalog documents a parent’s request to remove the novel from a class in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Those records establish objections and a removal request, not a countrywide ban or a final removal in that local case.
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ALA defines a challenge as “an attempt to remove or restrict access to materials or services based upon the objections of a person or group.” It defines a book as banned when it is “entirely removed from a collection in response to a formal or informal challenge.” ALA says a temporary reduction in access while material is reviewed does not meet its definition of a ban. (ALA: Most Challenged Books)
What objections were reported?
ALA’s historical lists report the reasons given by challengers; they are not ALA’s own findings about the book.
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- 2010: The Hunger Games ranked fifth among ALA’s most challenged titles. The reported reasons were “sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence.” ALA recorded 348 challenges across titles that year; that total is not a count of challenges to this novel. (ALA: Most Challenged Books)
- 2011: The Hunger Games trilogy ranked third among challenged titles. The reported grounds were “anti-ethnic, anti-family, insensitivity, offensive language, occult/satanic, violence.” ALA recorded 326 challenges across titles in 2011, not 326 challenges to the trilogy. (ALA: Most Challenged Books)
In these entries, violence and age suitability appear among the objections. The other labels are also claims attributed to people who challenged the books, not independently established descriptions of the novel.
What happened in the New Hampshire case?
A National Coalition Against Censorship catalog published in 2013 describes a parent asking the Goffstown, New Hampshire, School Board to remove the book from her daughter’s class. The parent said the novel gave her 11-year-old nightmares and could numb other students to the effects of violence. The catalog documents the request and the concerns she expressed; it does not establish the board’s final decision. (NCAC, Banned Books Library Catalog, 2013)
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How complete are the challenge figures?
ALA says its Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles challenge information from reports by library professionals and news stories. It also cautions that many challenges are neither reported to ALA nor covered in the press, so its counts are a snapshot rather than a complete census. (ALA: About Banned & Challenged Books)
For context, ALA’s current data page reports 4,235 unique titles challenged in 2025 and says nearly 92% of censorship attempts that year were initiated by pressure groups and decision makers swayed by them. These are national figures across titles, not evidence of a 2025 challenge to The Hunger Games. (ALA: Censorship by the Numbers)
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