Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been challenged or banned publicly eleven times since 2009. It is commonly called out for its depiction of homosexuality, sex, masturbation, and drug use. In 2010, this book, along with 17 others, was challenged in Fairfax County in Virginia by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools (PABBIS). PABBIS cites their reasons for challenging The Perks of Being a Wallflower for “containing profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct, and torture.” PABBIS’s claims never got anywhere because of their disregard for the first amendment which includes freedom to read that extends to children. In 2015, a parent complained about the book in Wallingford, Connecticut.
