Banned Books

2010-2022: American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) and PEN America's Index of School Book Bans
 

Showing 1 - 20 of 29  There are a total of 381 valid entries on the list.

1. The handmaid's tale

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Author:
Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
Series:
Handmaid's tale volume 1.
Average Rating:
4 stars
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Description:
Set in the near future, The handmaid's tale describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population. The story is told...

2. The testaments

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Author:
Atwood, Margaret, 1939-
Series:
Handmaid's tale volume 2.
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
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Description:
More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by...

3. A walk among the tombstones

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Author:
Block, Lawrence
Series:
Matthew Scudder mysteries volume 10.
Average Rating:
5 stars
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Description:
Matt Scudder wields his own brand of guerilla justice against kidnappers who have taken a drug dealer's wife.

4. Ready player one

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Author:
Cline, Ernest
Series:
Ready player novels volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
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Description:
"In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as OASIS. Wade's devoted his live to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines--puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to...

5. Between the world and me

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Author:
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
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Description:
For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him--most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear ... In [this book], Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings--moments when he discovered some new truth...

6. The Hunger Games

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Author:
Collins, Suzanne
Series:
Hunger Games trilogy volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
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Description:
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

7. Nickel and dimed: on (not) getting by in America

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Author:
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Average Rating:
2.7 stars
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Description:
"Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, the author decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job, any job, can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, she left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from...

8. The round house

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Author:
Erdrich, Louise
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
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When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family.

9. The great Gatsby

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Author:
Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
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Description:
Jay Gatsby had once loved beautiful, spoiled Daisy Buchanan, then lost her to a rich boy. Now, mysteriously wealthy, he is ready to risk everything to woo her back. This is the definitive, textually accurate edition of a classic of twentieth-century literature, The Great Gatsby. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan has been acclaimed by generations of readers. But the first edition contained...

10. The diary of a young girl

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Author:
Frank, Anne, 1929-1945
Average Rating:
5 stars
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Description:
THE DEFINITIVE EDITION • Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, the remarkable diary that has become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

Updated for the 75th Anniversary of the Diary’s first publication with a new introduction by Nobel Prize–winner Nadia Murad
“The single most compelling...

11. Lord of the flies

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Author:
Golding, William, 1911-1993
Average Rating:
3.2 stars
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Description:
William Golding's unforgettable classic of boyhood adventure and the savagery of humanity. 65 years after it was first published, William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary boys marooned on a coral island has been labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, and even a vision of the apocalypse. But above all, it has earned its place as one of the indisputable classics of the twentieth...

12. Looking for Alaska

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Author:
Green, John, 1977-
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
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Description:
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

13. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

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Author:
Haddon, Mark, 1962-
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
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Description:
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

14. The kite runner

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Author:
Hosseini, Khaled
Average Rating:
5 stars
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Description:
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present day. The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy Afghan youth and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of...

15. Fifty shades of Grey

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Author:
James, E. L.
Series:
Fifty shades trilogy volume 1.
Average Rating:
4 stars
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Description:
When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled...

16. To kill a mockingbird

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Author:
Lee, Harper
Series:
To kill a mockingbird volume 1.
Average Rating:
4 stars
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Description:
The setting is a dusty Southern town during the Depression. A white woman accuses a black man of rape. Though he is obviously innocent, the outcome of his trial is such a foregone conclusion that no lawyer will step forward to defend him--except the town's most distinguished citizen. His compassionate defense costs him many friendships but earns him the respect and admiration of his two motherless children.

17. A court of mist and fury

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Author:
Maas, Sarah J.
Series:
Court of thorns and roses volume 2.
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
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Description:
"Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people. As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different people: one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand,...

18. The bluest eye

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Author:
Morrison, Toni
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
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Description:
The story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove -- a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others -- who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different.

19. 1984

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Author:
Orwell, George, 1903-1950
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
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Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...

20. Cradle and all: a novel

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Author:
Patterson, James, 1947-
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Description:
Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private investigator, is hired by the Archdiocese of Boston to investigate two immaculate conceptions as terrifying forces of light and darkness gather.