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 189  There are a total of 381 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Clap when you land"
Star rating for Clap when you land
Average Rating:
2.3 stars
Description:
"Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people . . . In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance -- and Papi's secrets -- the two girls are forced...
Book cover for "The poet X"
Star rating for The poet X
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
When Xiomara Batista, who pours all her frustrations and passion into poetry, is invited to join the school slam poetry club, she struggles with her mother's expectations and her need to be heard.

3. Poet X

Book cover for "Poet X"
Star rating for Poet X
Description:
Xiomara Batista se siente ignorada e incapaz de ocultarse en Harlem. Desde que su cuerpo se volvió curvilíneo, aprendió a dejar que sus puños y su fiereza hablaran por ella. Pero X tiene mucho para decir, por eso descarga su frustración en las páginas de un cuaderno y recita las palabras para sí misma como si fueran plegarias, especialmente después de verse invadida por fuertes sentimientos hacia un chico de la clase de biología....
Book cover for "Half of a yellow sun"
Star rating for Half of a yellow sun
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Re-creates the 1960s struggle of Biafra to establish an independent republic in Nigeria, following the intertwined lives of the characters through a military coup, the Biafran secession, and the resulting civil war.
Book cover for "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens agenda"
Star rating for Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens agenda
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
"Sixteen-year-old, not-so-openly-gay Simon Spier is blackmailed into playing wingman for his classmate or else his sexual identity and that of his pen pal will be revealed" --Provided by publisher.
Book cover for "The upside of unrequited"
Star rating for The upside of unrequited
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Avoiding relationships to protect her sensitive heart, plus-sized Molly supports her once-cynical twin, Cassie, when the latter has her own bout of lovesickness, a situation that is complicated by sibling dynamics and an unexpected romantic triangle.
Book cover for "What if it's us"
Star rating for What if it's us
Series:
What if it's us volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
When Arthur, a summer intern from Georgia, meets Ben, a native New Yorker, it seems like fate, but after three attempts at dating fail they wonder if the universe is pushing them together or apart. Told in two voices.
Book cover for "The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian"
Star rating for The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Book cover for "The house of the spirits"
Star rating for The house of the spirits
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
"The unforgettable first novel that established Isabel Allende as one of the world's most gifted and imaginative storytellers. The House of the Spirits brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family. The patriarch Esteban is a volatile, proud man whose voracious pursuit of political power is tempered only by his love for his delicate wife, Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. When their...
Book cover for "Bless me, Ultima"
Star rating for Bless me, Ultima
Description:
"Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. Ultima is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him as he discovers himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past-a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each life turn, there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world . . . and will nurture...
Book cover for "Shout"
Star rating for Shout
Description:
Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless. In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven...

12. Speak

Book cover for "Speak"
Star rating for Speak
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.

13. Feed

Book cover for "Feed"
Star rating for Feed
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
Book cover for "The Haters"
Star rating for The Haters
Description:
A road trip adventure about a trio of jazz-camp escapees who, against every realistic expectation, become a band.
Book cover for "Me and Earl and the dying girl"
Star rating for Me and Earl and the dying girl
Average Rating:
2.8 stars
Description:
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.
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,...

17. Damsel

Book cover for "Damsel"
Star rating for Damsel
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
Waking up in the arms of Prince Emory, Ama has no memory of him rescuing her from a dragon's lair, but she soon discovers there is more to the legend of dragons and damsels than anyone knows and she is still in great danger.
Book cover for "Infandous"
Star rating for Infandous
Description:
"Once there was a mermaid who dared to love a wolf. Her love for him was so sudden and so fierce that it tore her tail into legs." Sephora Golding lives in the shadow of her unbelievably beautiful mother. Even though they scrape by in the seedier part of Venice Beach, she's always felt lucky. As a child, she imagined she was a minor but beloved character in her mother's fairy tale. But now, at sixteen, the fairy tale is less Disney and more Grimm....
Book cover for "Red Hood"
Star rating for Red Hood
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"Since her grandmother became her caretaker when she was four years old, Bisou Martel has lived a quiet life in a little house in Seattle . . . But then comes the night of homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life over roots and between trees, a fury of claws and teeth behind her. A wolf attacks . . . A new moon rises. And with it, questions." -- Adapted from back cover.
Book cover for "What girls are made of"
Star rating for What girls are made of
Description:
Sixteen-year-old Nina Faye navigates the difficult world of teenage relationships and dysfunctional family dynamics.