WASHINGTON -- Mirroring the heated national debate over gay marriage, three of the 10 books most frequently challenged at schools or libraries last year were cited for homosexual themes -- the highest number in a decade, according to the American Library Association.

The three books are a picture book titled "King and King" by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland; a young adult novel titled "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky; and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," an autobiographical volume by poet Maya Angelou.

These books will be among those spotlighted this week as libraries, bookstores and schools around the country commemorate the 23^rd annual Banned Books Week, which begins today and runs through Oct. 1.

Concern about homosexual themes in books has sparked efforts in several state legislatures to eliminate funding for materials that deal with homosexuality, ALA officials said. None has yet succeeded.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., has introduced legislation in Congress that would require local school districts to create parent councils to review acquisitions of materials for classrooms and libraries. Jones developed his legislation after hearing parent complaints about "King and King."

Complaints about "King and King" also prompted the Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma City to move children's books containing "sensitive or controversial" material to a special collection, available only to adults.

ALA officials said they are battling these efforts as contrary to the nation's tradition of intellectual freedom. "It all comes down to the imposition of your views on other people," said ALA President Michael Gorman. "To be honest, it seems to me to be downright un-American."

Gorman said the ALA believes that parents are responsible for what their own children read. "But it's important that the general public understand that there are people who want to censor the reading of other people's children," he said.

The number of book challenges reported last year to the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom jumped by nearly 100, to 547 complaints, officials said. That is less than the 762 challenges recorded in the peak year of 1995 but is still a worrisome trend, they said.

The ALA defines a book challenge as a formal written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. Sexual themes and offensive language are among the most common reasons cited. Most challenges involve school libraries, but the number involving public libraries is increasing, ALA officials said.

"These are just the challenges that we've heard of," Gorman added. "It's estimated that there are probably four to five times as many that we don't hear about."

Those on the other side of the issue contend that the ALA fails to protect children from materials that are pornographic or violent. "The ALA is an organization that pushes smutty books into K-12 schools, effectively using taxpayer money to do so," members of a Virginia-based group called People Against Bad Books In Schools wrote in an email response to a reporter's query. "The ALA is focused on promoting their agenda, in which anything goes at any age. Banned Books Week is simply one way they use to do that."

South Carolina school librarian Pat Scales, author of "Teaching Banned Books," said the Internet has fueled the growth of groups who challenge books.

"It's become a huge Internet movement," said Scales, who has testified as an expert witness in several cases involving book challenges. "On the flip side of that, because these people have been so aggressive and so active on the Internet, that has also mobilized those who feel differently [than the book challengers do]."

Groups challenging homosexual themes in books have attempted to persuade lawmakers in Alabama, Louisiana and Oklahoma to eliminate state funding for materials that deal with homosexuality or are written by homosexuals. The efforts have so far failed in their aim, but the Oklahoma House did pass a non-binding resolution urging library officials to restrict children's access to books with homosexual themes, according to the ALA.

The Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma City recently voted to move "easy, easy-read and tween" books containing "sensitive or controversial" themes to a special collection that is available only to "adults in authority."

Jones, the North Carolina congressman, said empowering parents was the goal of his legislation that would require local school districts to create parental boards to review library and classroom materials before they are purchased for elementary schools. "This legislation will be one avenue to help parents to take back their right to determine the appropriateness of the content their children are exposed to," he said.

But ALA officials say such legislation would allow a minority of parents to control content used by all students.

"There's not a public school out there that doesn't have a mission statement that says it serves all students," Scales said. "That means all ethnic groups, those who are gay or straight -- it means everything.

"There are people who want their kids to read books about gays and lesbians. Therefore, we have an obligation to have those books. We select those books the same way we select all others -- based on their literary merit."