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 22  There are a total of 381 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The undefeated"
Star rating for The undefeated
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"The Newbery Award-winning author of The Crossover pens an ode to black American triumph and tribulation, with art from a two-time Caldecott Honoree" -- Provided by publisher.
Book cover for "I know why the caged bird sings"
Star rating for I know why the caged bird sings
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey,...
Book cover for "They called themselves the K.K.K"
Star rating for They called themselves the K.K.K
Description:
Documents the history and origin of the Ku Klux Klan from its beginning in Pulaski, Tennessee, and provides personal accounts, congressional documents, diaries, and more.
Book cover for "Between the world and me"
Star rating for Between the world and me
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
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...
Book cover for "Gender identity"
Star rating for Gender identity
Author:
Description:
"An informative and project-filled book for middle graders to explore the meaning and history behind LGBTQ rights movements, including biographies of key figures in gender and gay/lesbian history, the context behind today's transgender 'bathroom wars' and dozens of activities and research ideas for perspectives and further learning." -- Amazon.com.
Book cover for "This book is gay"
Star rating for This book is gay
Author:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who's ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU. There's a long-running joke that, after "coming out," a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and instruction manual. THIS IS THAT INSTRUCTION MANUAL. You're welcome. Inside you'll find the answers to all...
Book cover for "The diary of a young girl"
Star rating for The diary of a young girl
Average Rating:
5 stars
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
...
Book cover for "I am Jazz!"
Star rating for I am Jazz!
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
The story of a transgender child based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids everywhere
"This is an essential tool for parents and teachers to share with children whether those kids identify as trans or not. I wish I had had a book like this when I was a kid struggling with gender identity questions. I found it deeply moving in its simplicity and honesty."—Laverne Cox (who plays Sophia...
Book cover for "Being Jazz"
Star rating for Being Jazz
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Teen activist and trailblazer Jazz Jennings--named one of "The 25 most influential teens" of the year by Time--shares her very public transgender journey, as she inspires people to accept the differences in others while they embrace their own truths.
Book cover for "All boys aren't blue"
Star rating for All boys aren't blue
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys." --Publisher.
Book cover for "Stamped from the beginning"
Star rating for Stamped from the beginning
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Americans like to insist that we are living in a postracial, color-blind society. In fact, racist thought is alive and well; it has simply become more sophisticated and more insidious. And as historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas in this country have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course...
Book cover for "Gender Queer"
Star rating for Gender Queer
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
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...
Book cover for "Gay & lesbian history for kids"
Star rating for Gay & lesbian history for kids
Description:
2016 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People List
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
On the Rainbow Book List

Who transformed George Washington's demoralized troops at Valley Forge into a fighting force that defeated an empire? Who cracked Germany's Enigma code and shortened World War II? Who successfully lobbied the US Congress to outlaw child labor? And who organized the 1963 March on Washington? Ls, Gs, Bs,...
Book cover for "Queer, there, and everywhere"
Star rating for Queer, there, and everywhere
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
This first-ever LGBTQ history book of its kind for young adults will appeal to fans of fun, empowering pop-culture books like Rad American Women A-Z and Notorious RBG. World history has been made by countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals--and you've never heard of many of them. Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. From high-profile...
Book cover for "And Tango makes three"
Star rating for And Tango makes three
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
At New York City's Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.
Book cover for "Once a King, Always a King"
Star rating for Once a King, Always a King
Series:
My bloody life volume 2.
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
This riveting sequel to My Bloody Life traces Reymundo Sanchez's struggle to create a "normal" life outside the Latin Kings, one of the nation's most notorious street gangs, and to move beyond his past. Sanchez illustrates how the Latin King motto "once a king, always a king" rings true and details the difficulty and danger of leaving that life behind. Filled with heart-pounding scenes of his backslide into drugs, sex, and violence, Once...
Book cover for "Sex Is a Funny Word"
Star rating for Sex Is a Funny Word
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
2016 Winner of the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction 
2016 ALA Stonewall Book Award, Honor Book

2016 ALA Notable Children's Book
A comic book for kids that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identities, Sex Is a Funny Word is an essential resource about bodies, gender, and sexuality for children ages 8 to 10 as well as their parents and caregivers....
Book cover for "The 57 bus"
Star rating for The 57 bus
Description:
"One teenager in a skirt. One teenager with a lighter. One moment that changes both of their lives forever. If it weren't for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued...
Book cover for "Separate is never equal"
Star rating for Separate is never equal
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case of 1946 in California"--
Book cover for "The glass castle"
Star rating for The glass castle
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
This story is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a penetrating look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who hated anything to do with domesticity. The Walls children learned to...