It's Banned Books Week! (9/22-9/28)

Hey y'all, it's Banned Books Week (9/22-9/28). This year's theme is Freed Between the Lines. Since 1982, Banned Books Week has served as an event to highlight the importance of free and open access to information, including the right to read whatever you want.

Below are the top ten books that have been banned or challenged in school and public libraries in 2023. 

1. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson: 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. *Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
2. Flamer by Mike Curato: It's the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone's going through changes--but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can't stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance. *Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
3. Gender Queer: a memoir by Maia Kobabe: In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns,thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographicalcomic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intenselycathartic 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 gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.*Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
4. Let’s Talk About It by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan: 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. *Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQIA+ content
5. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews: 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. *Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity
6. Sold by Patricia McCormick: 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. *Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, depiction of rape
7. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: The story of Pecola Breedlove profiles an eleven-year-old Black American girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes and the tragedy that results from her longing to be accepted. *Reasons: Depiction of rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI content
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower-- shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes: trying to make friends, family tensions, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs-- and dealing with his best friend's recent suicide.*Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQIA+ content, rape, drugs, profanity
9. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson: 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. *Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit
10. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins: Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family, and love. *Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, depiction of rape, LGBTQIA+ content

If you're passionate about the freedom to read, join any of our upcoming events in honor of Banned Books Week!