DPL Banned Books Week Staff PicksLike this list

19 items

• Out of Darkness

  Pérez, Ashley Hope

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  Liz G.: "Wash and Naomi are in love during a time and in a place where the color of their skin keeps them apart. This is a beautiful and heartbreaking story about forbidden love set against the backdrop of Texas oil fields." // Jenny P.: "This…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Persepolis

  Satrapi, Marjane, 1969-

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  Le B.: "This graphic memoir depicts the author’s coming of age, set against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. Sharply funny, it manages to strike a perfect balance between specific and relatable, as it provides fascinating insights into the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Eleanor & Park

  Rowell, Rainbow

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  Maryann S.: "I’ve read Eleanor and Park three or four times, and I always get goosebumps from the depictions of young love." // Rainbow Rowell's novel landed on the list of top 10 most challenging books in 2016.

• The Adventures of Captain Underpants

  Pilkey, Dav, 1966-

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  Heidi C.: "Growing up, my two boys read all of them, giggling as they read. Not every adult may appreciate the silly humor and trouble that George and Harold create in these books, but the entertainment level created for my young readers was…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• This One Summer

  Tamaki, Mariko

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  Jenny P.: "A really lovely graphic novel that depicts the awkward and often confusing stage between childhood and adulthood. Rose and Windy are more like sisters than friends, but now, in early adolescence, they're starting to drift apart. Both the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  Chbosky, Stephen

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  Jordan V.: "This is a beautiful coming-of-age story, with characters so real and loveable they will stick with you long after the last page. The visceral reflections provided by the protagonist, Charlie, act as an emotional antidote for young adults…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Rebelión En La Granja

  Orwell, George, 1903-1950

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  Dana O.: "Los animales de la granja se sublevan contra sus dueños humanos y les vencen para crear su propia sociedad. ¿Cómo funcionará una sociedad donde todos los animales son iguales, pero algunos son más iguales que otros? Nunca se olvidará este…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Bluest Eye

  Morrison, Toni

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  Cheri K.: "I enjoyed its beautifully written language and metaphor and the intense discussions it provokes about the psychological and societal factors involved with racial identity/racism, gender roles, poverty and sex abuse." // The Bluest Eye was…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Speak

  Anderson, Laurie Halse

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  Cheri K.: "I like Speak's strong heroine, who empowers women to empathize, discuss and understand and respond to unwanted sex." // In 2020, the book was named the fourth most banned and challenged book in the United States

• Looking for Alaska

  Green, John, 1977-

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  Jordan V.: "This powerful novel asks its adolescent target audience some very necessary and potent questions about life, love, spirituality, and most of all, death. And all of this is accomplished in simultaneously funny and heartbreaking John Green…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Con Tango son tres

  Richardson, Justin, 1963-

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  Dana O.: "Amor es amor es amor. Una historia verdadera de una pareja de pingüinos varones en el zoo de Central Park que tenían tanto amor y cariño para dar a un huevo abandonado. Así nació Tengo, el primer pingüino en tener dos papás."

• George

  Gino, Alex

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  Kathrine E.: "I enjoyed George and was moved by it and its topics." // George was the most-challenged book in 2020.

• Year of Wonders

  a Novel of the Plague

  Brooks, Geraldine

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  Liz G.: "Written in 2001, Year of Wonders was on the cutting edge of pandemic fiction. Brooks digs into the history, relationships, alliances and beliefs of an English village overrun by the bubonic plague." // In 2020, this book was named the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Maus

  a Survivor's Tale, II : and Here My Troubles Began

  Spiegelman, Art

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  Kathrine E.: "In Maus, the reader can not only read the emotions, but see them also in the appealing graphics." // After the McMinn County School Board voted to remove Maus from its eighth-grade curriculum, the community quickly found itself at the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Beloved

  Morrison, Toni, 1931-2019

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  Le B.: "This genre-bending novel unflinchingly tells the story of a woman who, in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, has to make peace with a terrible deed that she has committed before her life is overtaken by ghosts both figurative and literal.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

  Alexie, Sherman, 1966-

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  Elise S.: "One of my favorite movies is Smoke Signals, which was also written by Alexie, and this book has the same bittersweet mix of almost absurd comedy and blunt honesty about difficult issues." // This National Book Award-winning novel is one…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Handmaid's Tale

  Atwood, Margaret, 1939-

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  Maryann S.: "I read The Handmaid’s Tale in college and it rocked my world! It chillingly depicts the types of treatment of women in our country’s past, present, and possibly future have/could experience(d)." // The Handmaid's Tale is among books…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Glass Castle

  a Memoir

  Walls, Jeannette

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  Tina D.: "I think I tore through compelling memoir of author Jeannette Walls's upbringing--which was filled with hardship, dysfunction, and adventure--in less than a day. The author's complex and conflicting thoughts about her parents and childhood…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Banned Books Week: The American Library Association

  View on bannedbooksweek.org

  Learn more about the history of banned and challenged books, and take part in a variety of virtual events and programs.