The American Library Association’s “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010-2019”
- Read this list at the ALA's web site here. Books are listed by how frequently they've been challenged.
- Information about bans and challenges came from here or here, or from other web sites.
- Summaries were provided by publishers, and are not critical reviews.
- Click on the title links to see a book's record in the Libraries catalog, with locations and availability. Checked out books can be requested through GILExpress or recalled.
- Books can be delivered from their current location to a UGA Library convenient to you.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie Main 3rd floor PS3551.L35774 A27 2017
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. Challenged for profanity and scenes considered sexually explicit.
Captain Underpants (series) Dav Pilkey Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library PZ7 .P63123 Ad 1997
Adventures of Captain Underpants (Book 1) When George and Harold hypnotize their principal into thinking that he is the superhero Captain Underpants, he leads them to the lair of the nefarious Dr. Diaper, where they must defeat his evil robot henchmen. Challenged for offensive language, violence, and being unsuited to age group.
Th1rteen R3asons Why Jay Asher Main 1st floor Circulation Desk Juv PZ7 .A8155 Th 2007
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death. Challenged for drug and alcohol use, sexual content, and suicide.
Looking for Alaska John Green
Challenged for offensive language and sexual situations.
George Alex Gino Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7.1.G566 Geo 2015
When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part ... because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all." Challenged for language, references inappropriate for young children, and a transgender protagonist.
And Tango Makes Three Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ10.3.R52 An 2015
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. Challenged for being anti-family and unsuited for age group.
Drama Raina Telgemeier Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7.7.T45 Dr 2012
Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon Over Mississippi, she's a terrible singer. Instead she's the set designer for the stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen, and when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier! Challenged for LGBTQIA+ characters, offensive political viewpoints, sexual explicitness.
Fifty Shades Trilogy Main 1st floor Circulation Desk PR6110.A4555 F56 2012
Fifty Shades of Grey (Book 1) When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind -- until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time. Challenged for being sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other concerns, i.e. “poorly written” and “a group of teenagers will want to try it.”
Internet Girls (series) Lauren Myracle Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7 .M9955 Tt 2004 and E-Books
ttyl (Book 1) Chronicles, in "instant message" format on a simulated computer screen, the day-to-day experiences, feelings, and plans of three friends, Zoe, Maddie, and Angela, as they begin tenth grade. Challenged for offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexual scenes, and being unsuited to age group.
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison Main 3rd floor PS3563 .O8749 B55 1993
The first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove - a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others - who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment. Challenged for offensive language, sexual scenes, and being unsuited to age group.
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini Main 3rd floor PS3608.O525 K58 2003
An epic tale of fathers and sons, of friendship and betrayal, that takes us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the atrocities of the present day. The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy Afghan youth and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption. It is also about the power of fathers over sons: their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Challenged and banned for sexual violence and was thought to “lead to terrorism” and “promote Islam.”
Hunger Games (series) Suzanne Collins Main 1st floor Circulation Desk PZ7.C6837 Hun 2008
Hunger Games (Book 1) Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone fighting against you? Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death -- televised for all of Panem to see. Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love. Challenged for religious viewpoint and being unsuited to age group.
I Am Jazz! Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv HQ77.7 .H467 2014
From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way. Challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content, for a transgender character, and for confronting a topic that is “sensitive, controversial, and politically charged.”
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase
Follows observant "wallflower" Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up. Challenged for drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, being sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation.”
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Main 3rd floor PS3562 .E353 T6 1995
The explosion of racial hate in an Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape. Challenged for offensive language and racism.
Bone (compilation of series) Jeff Smith Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PN6727 .S546 B66 2004
After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins -- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone -- are separated and lost in a vast, uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into a deep, forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures. Eventually, the cousins are reunited at a farmstead run by tough Gran'ma Ben and her spirited granddaughter, Thorn. But little do the Bones know, there are dark forces conspiring against them and their adventures are only just beginning! Challenged for political viewpoint, racism, violence.
The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls Main 5th floor HV5132 .W35 2017
The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities. Challenged for offensive language and being sexually explicit.
Two Boys Kissing David Levithan Main 1st floor Circulation Desk Juv PZ7.L5798 Two 2013
A chorus of men who died of AIDS observes and yearns to help a cross-section of today's gay teens who navigate new love, long-term relationships, coming out, self-acceptance, and more in a society that has changed in many ways. Challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content.
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo) Jill Twiss Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase
HBO's Emmy winning Last Week Tonight with John Oliver presents a children's picture book about a Very Special boy bunny who falls in love with another boy bunny. Challenged and vandalized for LGBTQIA+ content and political viewpoints, for concerns it is “designed to pollute the morals of its readers,” and for not including a content warning.
Sex is a funny word: a book about bodies, feelings, and YOU Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv HQ53 .S55 2015
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. Much more than the "facts of life" or "the birds and the bees," Sex is a Funny Word opens up conversations between young people and their caregivers in a way that allows adults to convey their values and beliefs while providing information about boundaries, safety, and joy. Challenged, banned, and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content, for discussing gender identity and sex education, and for concerns that the title and illustrations were “inappropriate.”
Alice McKinley (series) Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library PZ7 .N24 Ag 1985
The Agony of Alice (Book 1) Eleven-year-old motherless Alice decides she needs a gorgeous role model who does everything right, and when placed in homely Mrs. Plotkins's class she is greatly disappointed until she discovers it is what people are inside that counts. Challenged for nudity, offensive language, and religious viewpoint.
It’s Perfectly Normal: a book about changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health Robie H. Harris Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library HQ53 .H37 1994
Provides accurate, lucid, and unbiased answers to almost every conceivable question on sex, including birth control and AIDS, that children may ask. Two cartoon characters, a bird and a bee have, often humorous, questions of their own. Challenged for providing sex education and being sexually explicit.
Nineteen Minutes Jodi Picoult Main 1st floor Leisure Collection Y9405
In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling's residents. Even those who were not inside the school that morning find their lives in an upheaval, including Alex Cormier. The superior court judge assigned to the Houghton case, Alex - whose daughter, Josie, witnessed the events that unfolded - must decide whether or not to step down. She's torn between presiding over the biggest case of her career and knowing that doing so will cause an even wider chasm in her relationship with her emotionally fragile daughter. Josie, meanwhile, claims she can't remember what happened in the last fatal minutes of Peter's rampage. Or can she? Challenged for sexual references, profanity, and violence, including bullying and suicide.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Alvin Schwartz Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library PZ8.1 .S399 Sc 1981
Stories of ghosts and witches, "jump" stories, scary songs, and modern-day scary stories. Challenged for violence and being unsuited for age group.
Speak Laurie Halse Anderson Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase
"Speak up for yourself - we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows that this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and is is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In this powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself. Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and biases against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity.
Brave New World Aldous Huxley Main 3rd floor PR6015.U9 B65
Towering classic of dystopian satire, Brave New World is a brilliant and terrifying vision of a soulless society--and of one man who discovers the human costs of mindless conformity. Hundreds of years in the future, the World Controllers have created an ideal civilization. Its members, shaped by genetic engineering and behavioral conditioning, are productive and content in roles they have been assigned at conception. Government-sanctioned drugs and recreational sex ensure that everyone is a happy, unquestioning consumer; messy emotions have been anesthetized and private attachments are considered obscene. Only Bernard Marx is discontented, developing an unnatural desire for solitude and a distaste for compulsory promiscuity. When he brings back a young man from one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old unenlightened ways still continue, he unleashes a dramatic clash of cultures that will force him to consider whether freedom, dignity, and individuality are worth suffering for. Challenged for insensitivity, nudity, racism, religious viewpoint, and being sexually explicit.
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out Susan Kuklin Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv HQ77.9 .K85 2014
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves. Challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, for “its effect on any young people who would read it,” and for concerns that it was sexually explicit and biased.
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck Main 3rd floor PS3537.T3234 O2
An intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and shared dream that make an individual's existence meaningful. Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students.
The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood Main 3rd floor PR9199.3.A8 H3
A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time. Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray for the Commander to make her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules. Banned and challenged for profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones.”
The Hate U Give Angie Thomas Main 3rd floor PS3620.H62463 H38 2017
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep 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. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. Banned and challenged for being “anti-cop,” and for profanity, drug use, and sexual references.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Alison Bechdel Main 3rd floor PN6727.B3757 Z46 2006
Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian house, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned 'fun home,' as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic, and redemptive. Challenged for violence and graphic images.
It’s a Book Lane Smith Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7.S6538 Is 2010
A donkey with a laptop computer and a gorilla with a printed book discuss the merits of their preferred formats. Challenged for language.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain Main 3rd floor PS1305 .A1 1996
The story of Huck's escape from his brutal father and the relationship that grows between him and Jim, a slave fleeing an even more brutal oppression, proved enormously influential in the development of American literature. Challenged for racism and offensive language.
The Things They Carried: a work of fiction Tim O’Brien Main 3rd floor PS3565 .B75 T48 1998
Depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. Banned and challenged for profanity.
What My Mother Doesn’t Know Sonya Sones Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7 .S6978 Wh 2001
Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches for Mr. Right. Challenged for offensive language, being unsuited to age group, and sexually explicit.
A Child Called ‘It’ Dave Pelzer Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase
Chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it." Challenged for graphic depictions of child abuse.
Bad Kitty (series) Nick Bruel Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7 .B82832 Bad 2005
Bad Kitty (Book 1) When a kitty discovers there is no cat food in the house, she decides to become very, very bad . From the creator of the New York Times bestseller Boing! comes the riotous story of a cat gone berserk; four times over an in alphabetical order each time. Kitty is not happy hen she's told that her favorite foods are all gone and all that's left are asparagus, beets, cauliflower, dill, and 22 other equally unappealing vegetables. So she ate my homework, bit grandma, clawed the curtains, damaged the dishes, and so on, through Z. Only when tastier things arrive, an assortment of anchovies, buffalo burritos, chicken cheesecake, does she apologize to grandma. Challenged for symbolic depiction of profanity.
Crank Ellen Hopkins Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7 .H7745 Cra 2004
Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter, gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father, Kristina disappears and Bree takes her place. Bree is the exact opposite of Kristina. Through a boy, Bree meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul - her life. Challenged for drugs, offensive language, and being sexually explicit.
Nickel and Dimed: on (not) getting by in America Barbara Ehrenreich Main 5th floor HD4918 .E375 2001
Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, the author decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job, any job, could be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on six to seven dollars an hour? To find out, she left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered as a woefully inexperienced homemaker returning to the workforce. So began a grueling, hair raising, and darkly funny odyssey through the underside of working America. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors. Challenged for drugs, inaccuracy, offensive language, political and religious viewpoints.
Persepolis Marjane Satrapi Main 3rd floor PN6747.S245 P4713 2003
Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Challenged for gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint, being “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” and having “graphic depictions.”
The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby Dav Pilkey Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase
The first complete graphic novel spin-off from the Captain Underpants series and appeared at #6 on the USA Today bestseller list for all books, both adult and children’s, and was also a New York Times bestseller. Banned and challenged for "prodigious use of potty humor."
This Day in June Gayle E. Pitman Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ8.3.P5586836 Th 2014
A picture book illustrating a Pride parade. The end matter serves as a primer on LGBT history and culture and explains the references made in the story. Challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content.
This One Summer Mariko Tamaki Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7.7.T355 Thi 2014
Rose and her parents have been going to Awago Beach since she was a little girl. It's her summer getaway, her refuge. Her friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had, completing her summer family. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and Rose and Windy have gotten tangled up in a tragedy-in-the-making in the small town of Awago Beach. It's a summer of secrets and heartache, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other. Challenged for including LGBT characters, drug use and profanity, and sexually explicit mature themes.
A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl Tanya Lee Stone Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase
Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva all get mixed up with a senior boy–a cool, slick, sexy boy who can talk them into doing almost anything he wants. In a blur of high school hormones and personal doubt, each girl struggles with how much to give up and what ultimately to keep for herself. How do girls handle themselves? How much can a boy get away with? And in the end, who comes out on top? A bad boy may always be a bad boy. But this bad boy is about to meet three girls who won’t back down. Challenged for drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, and sexual scenes.
Beloved Toni Morrison Main 3rd floor PS3563 .O8749 B4 1987
After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of "Beloved." Sethe and Denver take her in and then strange things begin to happen. Set in rural Ohio several years after the Civil War, this profoundly affecting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath is Toni Morrison's greatest novel, a dazzling achievement, and the most spellbinding reading experience of the decade. Challenged for being sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, and violence.
In Our Mothers’ House Patricia Polacco Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase
Marmee, Meema, and the kids are just like any other family on the block. In their beautiful house, they cook dinner together, they laugh together, and they dance together. But some of the other families don't accept them. They say they are different. How can a family have two moms and no dad? But Marmee and Meema's house is full of love. And they teach their children that different doesn't mean wrong. And no matter how many moms or dads they have, they are everything a family is meant to be. Here is a true Polacco story of a family, living by their own rules, and the strength they gain by the love they feel. Restricted for “normalizing a lifestyle we don’t agree with."
Goosebumps (series) R.L. Stine Several series volumes in Curriculum Materials Library
Welcome to Dead House (Book 1: Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase) 11-year-old Josh and 12-year-old Amanda just moved into the oldest and weirdest house on the block--the two siblings think it might even be haunted! But of course, their parents don't believe them. You'll get used to it, they say. Go out and make some new friends. But the creepy kids are not like anyone Josh and Amanda have ever met before. And when they take a shortcut through the cemetery one night, Josh and Amanda learn why. Banned for being too graphic and scary for children.
Lush Natasha Friend Request through Interlibrary Loan or request we Purchase
It's hard to be a 13-year-old girl. But it's even harder when your father's a drunk. It adds an extra layer to everything -- your family's reactions to things, the people you're willing to bring home, the way you see yourself and the world. For Samantha, it's something that's been going on for so long that she's almost used to it. Only, you never get used to it. Especially when it starts to get worse... Challenged for drugs, offensive language, being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.
The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger Main 3rd floor PS3537.A426 C3 1951
In an effort to escape the hypocrisies of life at his boarding school, sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield seeks refuge in New York City. Challenged for offensive language and being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.
The Color Purple Alice Walker Main 3rd floor PS3573.A425 C6 2003
Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this is the story of two sisters--one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South--who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence. Challenged for offensive language and being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon Main 3rd floor PR6058 .A245 C87 2003b
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic, fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. Challenged for offensive language, religious viewpoint, being unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
The Holy Bible Main 6th floor BS195 .N37 1986 (Many other versions and editions available)
The Holy Bible, New International Version, the NIV concordance, introductions and outlines to the books of the Bible, color time lines and charts. Challenged for religious viewpoint.
This Book is Gay Juno Dawson Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv HQ76.26 .D39 2015
Lesbian. Bisexual. Queer. Transgender. 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 the questions you ever wanted to ask: from sex to politics, hooking up to stereotypes, coming out and more. This candid and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention illustrations. Challenged in Wasilla, AK by parents who didn't want "gay books" in the public library.
Eleanor & Park Rainbow Rowell Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7.R79613 Ele 2013
Two misfits. One extraordinary love. Eleanor -- Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough -- Eleanor. Park -- He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises -- Park. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds -- smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. Challenged for offensive language.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer Main 3rd floor PS3606 .O38 E97 2005
Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Banned for “several passages that were ‘extremely’ vulgar detailing sexual acts.”
Gossip Girl (series) Cecily von Ziegesar Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PZ7 .V94 Go 2002
Gossip Girl (Book 1) Presents a world of jealousy and betrayal at an exclusive private school in Manhattan. Challenged for drugs, offensive language, and being sexually explicit.
House of Night (series) P.C. Cast Aderhold 2nd floor Curriculum Materials Library Juv PS3603 .A869 M37 2007
Marked (Book 1) The House of Night series from bestselling authors P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres have always existed. In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire--that is, if she makes it through the Change. Not all of those who are chosen do. It's tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite club, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny--with a little help from her new vampyre friends. Banned for sexual content or nudity.
My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy Dori Hillestad Butler (Online)
Elizabeth's mom is having a baby, and the whole family is involved. Elizabeth learns all about the baby's development, and she traces his growth, month by month. She learns how the baby got inside Mom, too. Challenged for nudity, sex education, being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.
