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11 Banned Books Everyone Should Read
This week, Oct. 5-11, is Banned Book Week, a week that shouldn’t exist.
Banned Books Week, first established in 1982, celebrates the freedom to read in spite of the increasing challenges to books in schools and libraries around the world, particularly in the United States. During this annual event, librarians, educators, authors, and organizations such as the American Library Association (ALA) and PEN America come together to promote the importance of free and equitable access to information, while sharing statistics and facts about threats to those freedoms across the U.S.
During the 2024-25 school year in the United States, 6,870 book bans took place across 23 states and 87 public school districts, according to PEN America’s 2025 report, Banned in the USA: The Normalization of Book Banning. The states with the highest rates of book banning in 2024-25 as Florida, with 2,304 instances; Texas (1,781); and Tennessee (1,622).
What exactly IS a book ban? According to PEN America’s report, a school book ban is: “…. any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.”
As a high school librarian and mother of two teenagers, I’m very aware of which books, authors, and topics are most commonly banned. The trends are predictable and consistent: books featuring LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; characters of color dealing with racism; social activism (especially relating to Black Lives Matter and/or police brutality); depictions of sex or sexual violence; and suicidal characters or situations are being challenged at skyrocketing rates across the US.
The books most commonly being removed from shelves all feature marginalized, abused, misunderstood characters in distress. These are heavy books addressing heavy things — the very things teens are experiencing and trying to understand. Sadly, books written for young adults make up the vast majority of bans in the US. According to PEN America, in the 2022-23 school year, 61% of bans were young adult books written for teens, ages 12-18.
As a librarian, parent, educator, and patron of public libraries, I don’t need to agree with every book on the shelf, nor do I need to like with them all. Libraries are for everyone — and therefore must feature robust, diverse topics, authors, and differing perspectives. If you don’t like something, don’t read it. Removing a book from a shelf ruins the experience for someone else, and quite often, those experiences can be life changing. As I tell my students, “Books save lives.”
Here are eleven banned books I feel everyone (especially teens) should read**
**While most of the following books were written for teens, and are considered young adult (YA) literature, some are not. In my opinion, ALL of the following titles will resonate strongly with both teenagers AND adults. Some titles are more appropriate for older teens (ages 16+), while others are suitable for the broader 12-18 age range. This list is just a small sample of the dozens of banned books I would recommend as a teen librarian.
1984 by George Orwell (1949)
“Big Brother is watching you:” Orwell’s 1984 is the most banned book of all-time. Written just after World War II, and frequently included on Top 100 “Best Books” lists, this classical dystopian novel depicts the character Winston Smith’s experiences living in the totalitarian society of Oceania, under constant surveillance of Big Brother.
1984 is frequently banned due to the satirization of politics and government, sexual content, and violence depicted in its pages. All three copies of it are constantly checked out of our library, and there’s usually a wait list to read this — along with Orwell’s other frequently challenged work, Animal Farm (written in 1945).
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970)
Toni Morrison’s first novel tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, an 11-year-old Black girl in1941 Ohio. Pecola believes she is ugly due to internalized effects of racism and yearns for blue eyes in order to become beautiful and loved. The Bluest Eye details Pecola’s traumatic life, including the neglect and abuse she suffers at the hands of her parents.
The Bluest Eye is a necessary first step for any reader planning to delve further into Morrison’s Nobel Prize winning works. Morrison’s devastating narrative tackles racialized beauty standards and the trauma of incest and child molestation — topics which have led to the book being frequently banned. The book has appeared on ALA’s top ten banned books lists for the past several years.
Kindred by Octavia Butler (1979)
Kindred is the first science fiction book ever written by a Black author. Octavia Butler’s groundbreaking work follows the life of Dana, a Black woman married to a white man, living in 1980s California. Throughout the course of the novel, Dana is repeatedly transported back in time to the antebellum South where she meets her ancestor, a white slaveowner, and learns to navigate life as an enslaved woman, while also coming to terms with the complexities of ancestral history. Though considered a modern classic, Kindred is frequently banned from school libraries due to its depictions of slavery, violence, and racial themes.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1984)
At just 110 pages, Cisneros’ novel is short, but packs an unforgettable punch. The House on Mango Street follows a year in the life of Esperanza Cordero, a young Mexican-American girl, as she moves to a house in a barrio (Latino neighborhood) of Chicago, a home that is far from the one of her dreams. Esperanza’s experiences with poverty, racism, sexuality, and domestic violence are told through Cisneros’s visceral, unflinching, poetic verse. Despite winning the American Book Award (1985), Cisneros’s novel is often banned due to the topics listed above.
As Esperanza laments: “People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth.”
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (1999)
The summer before her freshman year of high school, Melinda Sordino meets senior AndyEvans at a high school party, who rapes her while she is drunk. Melinda calls the police, but her shock renders her speechless. Melinda struggles with PTSD and isolation for most of Speak, eventually reclaiming her voice and identity through the art she creates in Mr. Friedman’s art class.
Based on a sexual assault that author Laurie Halse Anderson experienced at the same age, Speak, a National Book Award finalist, is frequently banned due to the trauma, sexual violence, and profanity contained in its pages.
In an interview with PEN America in 2023, Anderson describes how she coped after her attack: “…. even though there weren’t any books about my experience … the act of reading, the act of going into that safe sanctuary in the library, that’s what kept me alive through those years.”
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater (2017)
Dashka Slater’s narrative nonfiction book details the true story of two teenagers in Oakland, California, in 2013. Sasha, a white agender (neither male nor female) teen is riding the bus home from school when their skirt is set on fire by Richard, a Black cisgender teen, who was arrested and tried as an adult. This book is told through both Sasha and Richard’s perspectives, and is an eye opening exploration into the nuances and pitfalls of race, gender identity, the juvenile justice system, and socioeconomic inequities.
Though The 57 Bus describes real people and real events, has won multiple awards, it was one of the top 5 banned books in the state of Tennessee in 2023, and has also been banned or challenged in Idaho, Iowa, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Kansas, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (2017)
Written in poetic free verse, Long Way Down tells the story of 15-year-old Will, whose plans to kill his brother Shawn’s murderer are interrupted during an elevator ride down to the ground floor, where he encounters ghosts of people connected to his family and neighborhood’s violent history. The story centers on the power of a single choice to break (or continue) the cycle of violence.
Despite winning a slew of awards (the book was longlisted for the National Book Award, named a Printz Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Book, AND a Newbery Honor Book), it is frequently banned due to its portrayals of gun violence and revenge culture.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2022, Reynolds, who was the US Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, notes: “I represent all of the young people, but I definitely want to be a springboard for the ones that just haven’t felt safe in literature or in the world …. So that they can then see that the world is broad and big and beautiful. And theirs.”
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017)
The Hate U Give is never on the shelf in our high school library – all 3 copies are always checked out. The book’s protagonist, sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban private school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
While Starr is traumatized by the loss of her friend, she eventually realizes she needs to use her voice to help gain justice for his unjust death.
With portrayals of police brutality, racism, sexuality, and profanity, it’s sadly not surprising that The Hate U Give has featured on both ALA and PEN America’s top 100 most banned books in recent years.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (2018)
Xiomara Batista, is a fifteen-year-old Dominican American about to start tenth grade. Xiomara is very confused about her feelings on boys, her body, her relationships, and religion, and gradually finds poetry as a way to voice her struggles. Written in poetic verse, with Spanish phrases and urban slang woven in, The Poet X reads with raw emotion and rhythm. Author Elizabeth Acevedo, a National Slam Poetry champion, almost sings Xiomara’s words on the novel’s audiobook.
The Poet X is another book that is almost never on the shelf in our library. Sadly it is frequently banned for Xiomara’s questioning of her Catholic faith; depictions of sexuality and race have also made it prone to attack.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson (2020)
All Boys Aren’t Blue has been #1 or #2 on ALA’s top 10 most banned books list for the pastseveral years, and also appears on PEN America’s Banned Book List of 2025. This memoir addresses the author George M. Johnson’s struggles as a Black queer man, addressing nearly all of the main “banned book themes” (gender identity, racism, sexuality, and Black joy) through his direct, “tell it like it is” narration.
Johnson explains the unapologetic, confessional tone of his book in its first few pages: “In writing this book, I wanted to be as authentic and truthful about my experience as possible. I wanted my story to be told in totality…. these things happened to me when I was a child, teenager, and young adult. So as heavy as these subjects may be, it is necessary that they are not only told, but also read by teens who may have to navigate many of these same experiences in their own lives.”
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (2021)
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a coming-of-age young adult novel centering on the experience of Lily Hu, a teenager in 1950s San Francisco, as she comes to terms with her sexuality while also dealing with the prevalent societal racism toward Chinese Americans. Lily comes across an ad for the Telegraph Club in the newspaper and then discovers that one of her classmates, Kath, has been to the nightclub. The story proceeds over the course of five months with an epilogue that takes place a year later as Lily and Kath navigate their relationship and the secrecy that comes with the LGBTQ+ community in the mid-20th century.
The scope of what Last Night at The Telegraph Club covers is truly impressive – readers gain a lesson in xenophobia, homophobia, communism, and the Red Scare, all the while following the budding risky romance between Lily and Kath. Even though Malinda Lo’s book is the winner of the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, AND is a Prinz honor book, it is frequently banned for its portrayal of LGBTQ+ topics, sexuality, and racism.
In honor of Banned Book Week, please consider reading, sharing, or promoting the above books — or any of the countless others that have been banned over the years. This Saturday, Oct. 11th, is Let Freedom Read Day – an excellent excuse to support libraries, librarians, educators, booksellers, and authors everywhere.
