Banned Books week is September 22-28, 2024. As CLP celebrates the right to read, check out the list of adult titles below that have been challenged, banned, or censored over the past few years.
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A classic African American novel of race, poverty, and longing to be something that you’re not.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.
Why it was banned/challenged: A classic of American literature, Morrison’s novel was labeled by some as sexually explicit and “an underlying socialist-communist agenda.”
A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook and eAudio on Libby and an eBook on Hoopla.
Why it was banned/challenged: Walker’s novel has been challenged over the years for a variety of reasons including homosexuality, violence, and explicit language.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook and eAudio on Libby and eAudio on Hoopla.
Why it was banned/challenged: Earlier this year, Sarah J Maas’ entire series was banned from public schools in Utah under a law that “prohibits books when at least 3 of the state’s 41 school district boards claim they contain pornographic or indecent material.”
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity–what it means and how to think about it–for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby or as an eBook on Hoopla.
Why it was banned: Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir hits on many of the common reasons for current book bannings, namely LGBTQ+ content and sexual imagery. Gender Queer has been the most commonly banned book since it was published in 2019.
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town where she grew up–she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. And when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life seems too good to be true…
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.
Why it was banned/challenged: Challenged due to “themes of abuse and sex.”
Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem’s casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as she learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it truly her own for the first time.
This title is also available for checkout in eAudio on Libby.
Why it was banned/challenged: Book challenges have focused on the sexual content and “developmental appropriateness” for younger readers.
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning 1619 Project issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.
Why it was banned/challenged: Challengers claim that the content of this book and corresponding curricula teaches students to “hate their own country.”
This collection of poems is a vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and as an eBook on Hoopla.
Why it was banned/challenged: This collection, along with two other of Kaur’s poetry collections have been challenged for its explicit content.
This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and as an eBook on Hoopla.
Why it was banned/challenged: In 2022, the Watchmen was one of nearly 300 titles banned from 11 school districts in Missouri following the passing of Senate Bill 775, which makes providing “explicit sexual material” to students a class A misdemeanor.