Spence School Library: Banned Books Week 2024: Top 100 Banned Books of the Past Decade

YA FICTION

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Call Number: YA FIC BLU

CHALLENGED FOR: claimed to be sexually explicit and anti-Christian
Melissa (previously Published As GEORGE) by Alex Gino
Call Number: YA FIC GIN

CHALLENGED FOR: LGBTQIA+ content, sexual content
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Call Number: YA FIC FIT

CHALLENGED FOR: portrayals of disrespect to adults
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Call Number: YA FIC GRE

CHALLENGED FOR: sexual content, LGBTQIA+ content, references to drugs and alcohol
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Call Number: YA FIC CAR

CHALLENGED FOR: violence, language, renouncing of religion
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling; Mary GrandPré (Illustrator)
Call Number: YA FIC ROW

CHALLENGED FOR: portrayals of witchcraft
Matilda by Roald Dahl; Quentin Blake (Illustrator); Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini (Illustrator)
Call Number: YA FIC DAH

CHALLENGED FOR: portrayals of disrespect to adults, crude language
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Call Number: YA FIC AND

CHALLENGED FOR: offensive language, LGBTQIA+ content, violence
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki; Jillian Tamaki (Illustrator)
Call Number: GRAPHIC TAM

CHALLENGED FOR: LGBTQIA+ characters, drug use, profanity, sexually explicit
The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, Book One) by Suzanne Collins
Call Number: YA FIC COL

CHALLENGED FOR: Religious viewpoint and being unsuited to age group.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; Amandla Stenberg (Foreword by)
Call Number: YA FIC THO

CHALLENGED FOR: depictions of racism, violence, anti-police views
Feed by M. T. Anderson
Call Number: YA FIC AND

CHALLENGED FOR: profanity, sexuality
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Call Number: YA FIC ROW

CHALLENGED FOR: coarse language and sexuality
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Call Number: YA FIC LOW

CHALLENGED FOR: violence, infanticide, euthanasia, sexuality, and suicide.

Fiction

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Call Number: FIC ATW

CHALLENGED FOR: profanity, explicit sex, offensiveness to Christians
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Call Number: FIC HUX

CHALLENGED FOR: themes of sexuality, drugs, suicide
1984 by George. Orwell; Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Introduction by); Sandra Newman (Afterword by)
Call Number: FIC ORW

CHALLENGED FOR: pro-Communist and sexually explicit content
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Call Number: FIC LEE

CHALLENGED FOR: themes of rape, use of profanity and racial slurs
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Call Number: FIC HOS

CHALLENGED FOR: violence and sexual situations
The Awakening and Selected Stories by Kate Chopin
Call Number: FIC CHO

CHALLENGED FOR: representation of female sexuality and independence
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; Susan Shillinglaw (Introduction by)
Call Number: FIC STE

CHALLENGED FOR: vulgarity, racism, treatment of women
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Call Number: FIC OBR

CHALLENGED FOR: strong language, sexual content, graphic scenes
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Call Number: 362.82 W

CHALLENGED FOR: strong sexual situations, alcoholism, abuse
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Call Number: FIC MOR

CHALLENGED FOR: being sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, and violence.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Call Number: FIC TWA

ISBN: 0679405844

CHALLENGED FOR: racism and offensive language.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Call Number: FIC WAL

CHALLENGED FOR: offensive language and being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Call Number: FIC SAL

CHALLENGED FOR: offensive language and being sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Call Number: FIC SAL

CHALLENGED FOR: offensive language, religious viewpoint, being unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”).
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Call Number: FIC ANA

CHALLENGED FOR: occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, and being sexually explicit.

Graphic Novels

Maus I: a Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman
Call Number: GRAPHIC SPI

CHALLENGED FOR: sexually explicit content
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Call Number: GRAPHIC SAT

CHALLENGED FOR: graphic language and images
Out from Boneville: a Graphic Novel (BONE #1) by Jeff Smith
ISBN: 9780439706407

Publication Date: GRAPHIC SMI

CHALLENGED FOR: political viewpoint, racism, violence.
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Call Number: GRAPHIC TEL

CHALLENGED FOR: LGBTQIA+ characters, offensive political viewpoints, sexual explicitness.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Call Number: GRAPHIC BEC

CHALLENGED FOR: violence and graphic images.

NonFiction

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank; Susan Massotty (Translator); Otto H. Frank (Editor); Mirjam Pressler (Editor)
Call Number: 940.53 F

CHALLENGED FOR: sexual content
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Call Number: 305.5 E

CHALLENGED FOR: drugs, inaccuracy, offensive language, political and religious viewpoints.

Banned Books Week 2024: Top 100 Banned Books of the Past Decade

YA FICTION

Fiction

Graphic Novels

NonFiction

Attribution