This year Banned Books Week is from September 22-28. This is a week for public libraries to highlight challenges made to books and to celebrate our freedom to read these titles. September 28th is Let Freedom Read Day, when we encourage everyone to take at least one action to defend books from censorship. You can read more about that and get suggestions for what actions to take at the Banned Books Week website. Another great way to celebrate your freedom to read is to check out one of the top ten most frequently challenged books of the past year, all of which are available through MHL.
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Gender queer / : A Memoir by Maia Kobabe Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gayfan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. |
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All boys aren't blue : a memoir-manifesto by George M. Johnson Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit A first book by the prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist shares personal essays that chronicle his childhood, adolescence and college years as a Black queer youth, exploring subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy. |
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This book is gay by Juno Dawson Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit A British author of teen fiction offers basic information about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience, including terms, religious issues, coming out, and sex acts, for people of all orientations, including the merely curious. |
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by Stephen Chbosky Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, rape, drugs, profanity This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative voice in contemporary fiction. This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular, hilarious, and devastating. |
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Flamer
by Mike Curato Challenged for: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit In the summer between middle school and high school, Aiden Navarro navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and finds himself drawn to Elias, a boy he can't stop thinking about. |
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The bluest eye : a novel
by Toni Morrison Challenged for: rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI content A new edition of the first novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author relates the story of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old Black girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes, and the tragedy that results because of her longing to be accepted. |
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Me and Earl and the dying girl by Jesse Andrews Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia. |
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Tricks by Ellen Hopkins Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQIA+ content Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family, and love. |
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Let's talk about it : the teen's guide to sex, relationships, and being a human
by Erika Moen Challenged for: claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQIA+ content Presented in the accessible style of a graphic novel, a practical guide to adolescence by the creators of the Oh Joy Sex Toy sex-education webcomic shares compassionate and relatable advice on subjects ranging from body image and identity to healthy relationships and safe sex. |
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When she is tricked by her stepfather and sold into prostitution, thirteen-year-old Lakshmi becomes submerged in a nightmare where her only comfort is the friendship she forms with the other girls, which helps her survive--and eventually escape. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults. |