'Captain Underpants' complaints top '50 Shades' on ALA's 'frequently challenged books' list

Dave Pilkey's beloved "Captain Underpants" series, about two fourth graders who hypnotize their principal into an underwear-sporting superhero, has topped the American Library Association's annual list of "frequently challenged books." Complaints targeting "Captain Underpants" opposed the series' "offensive language."

In honor of National Library Week, the ALA lists the books that have had complaints filed against them in a library or school "because of content or appropriateness."

"Captain Underpants" even beat out the best-selling book of 2012, "Fifty Shades of Grey," an erotic novel about a naive college graduate seduced by a wealthy Lothario, which only made it to number 4.

Here's the ALA's top-10 list for 2012:

1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey. Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

3. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group

4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James. Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

5. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group

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6. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit

7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green. Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group

8. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence

9. The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit

10. Beloved, by Toni Morrison Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence