2023 Summer Banned Books Reading Challenge

•

Throughout the years, books have been challenged—usually with the seemingly-innocent intention to protect others (frequently children) from difficult or abstract ideas and information.

Issues around gender expression, sexuality, identity, race, immigration and even consent have not been part of the mainstream discourse, so when books emerge that challenge the status quo, some people get angry and demand those books be removed so no one has access to them. Even when well intentioned, this gate-keeping constitutes censorship, and denies individuals—specifically young persons—from gaining access to a text that could help them work out who they are. One person’s moral judgment of appropriateness might severely limit access to a crucial work and prevent others from discovering information that could be relevant to their actual lives.

The UUCUC 2023 Summer Banned Book Reading Challenge encourages you to support the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular, by reading a book that has been banned or frequently challenged. 

For each book you read, submit your completed reading log online or return a completed reading log sheet (download PDF) to the UUCUC office to be entered into a drawing for some fun literary-themed prizes! Every book you read gets you one entry. 

All completed reading log entries must be received by September 5, 2023 to be entered into the prize drawing.

We have provided a list of books for different age groups: PreK-K, Elementary, Middle School, Young Adult/High School, and Adult. The books featured for this reading challenge have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools around the country.

There are also several lists of banned and challenged books available online. When searching for titles, check out the list of the Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022. You can find more books on other year’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists from the American Library Association, The 50 most banned books in America, as well as The Ultimate List of Popular Banned Books You Should Read in 2023. More links are included at the end of the post.

Many of these books can be found in the UUCUC Library, located on the lower level of the church building. We will be adding many new books to the library over the summer as well.

ADULTS

Additional list of Banned and Challenged Books for Adults | Omaha Public Library

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

In a world where most people have lost the ability to dream, a fifteen-year-old Indigenous boy who is still able to dream struggles for survival against an army of “recruiters” who seek to steal his marrow and return dreams to the rest of the world.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet and discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined as one begins dating the other’s best friend, who produces a play revealing his relationship with them both.

Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings

At the age of five, Jazz Jennings transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on her incredible journey—high-profile interviews, a documentary, the launch of her YouTube channel, a picture book, and her own reality TV series—and learning to navigate the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence complicated by the unique challenges of being a transgender teen.

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

A prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist shares personal essays that chronicle his childhood, adolescence, and college years as a Black queer youth, exploring subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy.

Stamped: Racism, Anti Racism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

When Lily realizes she has feelings for a girl in her math class, it threatens Lily’s oldest friendships and even her father’s citizenship status and eventually, Lily must decide if owning her truth is worth everything she has ever known.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The story of Pecola Breedlove profiles an eleven-year-old African American girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes and the tragedy that results from her longing to be accepted.

1984 by George Orwell

Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching.

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez

Loosely based on a school explosion that took place in New London, Texas, in 1937, this is the story of two teenagers: Naomi, who is Mexican, and Wash, who is black, and their dealings with race, segregation, love, and the forces that destroy people.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki; illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

Rose’s latest summer at a beach lake house is overshadowed by her parents’ constant arguments, her younger friend’s secret sorrows, and the dangerous activities of older teens.

YA/High School

Additional list of Banned and Challenged Books for Teens | Omaha Public Library

Call of the Wild by Jack London 

In re-creating the world of the frontier, Jack London drew from his own experiences in the Klondike during the gold rush of 1897, and he vividly depicts the harsh conditions in which man and beast were forced to survive.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Told in a series of vignettes stunning for their eloquence, this is Sandra Cisneros’s greatly admired novel of a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen 

After crash-landing in the remote Canadian wilderness, thirteen-year-old Brian has only a hatchet and the clothes on his back to help him survive the terrifying and brutal wild.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

A horrible incident at a high school party leaves Melinda socially isolated, traumatized, and adrift.

Push: Tyrell by Coe Booth 

Tyrell is a fifteen-year-old, African American teen living in a homeless shelter and trying not to end up making the same mistakes as his jailed father.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 

Zora Neale Hurston’s beloved 1937 classic is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

This classic novel tells the tale of an unusual friendship between two very different men who find comfort in one another’s company while looking for work in pre-Depression California.

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier, Christopher Collier

This young adult novel, which successfully captures the pain of the Revolutionary War, is a fine example of historical fiction.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

In a novel rich in characters and authentic in detail, Walter Dean Myers tells the powerful story of one seventeen-year-old’s tour of duty in the Vietnam War.

Middle School

Drama
If you think your house is filled with drama, you haven’t been to middle school lately. Get a refresher with this tween graphic novel that follows theater geek Callie as she strives to build a Broadway-worthy set and figure out … well, boys. But the real drama for this book came when it hit the banned children’s book list in one school district and two school libraries in Texas because it features LGBTQ characters. Ages: 10-14

The Giver by Lois Lowry

When it comes to dystopian novels, tweens and teens just can’t get enough of them. And Lois Lowry’s Newbery Award-winning classic continues the trend. But parents in Blue Springs, Missouri grew concerned over “twisted” and “lewd” content in the book and tried to have it removed from an eighth-grade reading list in 2003. The good news is, the compelling story is continued on in three more books in the series. Ages: 12 & up

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
This Newbery Award winner has been challenged a few times for undermining religious beliefs, and in 1985 it was challenged at a Florida elementary school for promoting witchcraft, crystal balls and demons. Ages: 10-14

Roll of Thunder, Hear Me Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

The story of Cassie Logan, an independent girl growing up relatively protected in a loving family, stands as an important addition to the cumulative record of the African-American experience.

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

A unique coming-of-age story, in which a young Inuit girl’s search for her origins and identity is an arduous and complex journey.

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

Gilly Hopkins has been in one foster home after another. The only thing she has learned is that you have to be tough to survive.

The Amulet Of Samarkand By Jonathan Stroud

The first book in the Bartimaeus series is a best-selling fantasy novel for grades 5-8. Like many fantasy novels written for this age group, it’s frequently challenged and outright banned because it doesn’t jive with one religion’s ideology.

Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene

Change comes for 12 year-old Patty, a Jewish girl living in rural Arkansas during World War II, when she befriends a young German prisoner of war named Anton, who has escaped and is desperate for a place to hide.

The Supernaturalist By Eoin Colfer

Banned by the Lackawanna School District in New York (along with six others, including the Amulet of Samarkand) for “occult themes.” Another common reason given is “grownups are portrayed negatively.” Gee, if we banned books because of that, half of all middle-grade reads would be on the chopping block!

Olive’s Ocean By Kevin Henkes

Like Bridge to Terabithia, Olive’s Ocean helps tweens make sense of grief, something that’s challenging even to adults.

White Bird: A Wonder Story By R. J. Palacio

Palacio makes her graphic novel debut with Grandmère’s heartrending story: how she, a young Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II; how the boy she and her classmates once shunned became her savior and best friend.

Maus

Maus has been banned in a Tennessee county for profanity, nudity, violence, and suicide, although it presents the argument of how to honestly portray the Holocaust without those things. Maus is a Pulitzer-prize-winning graphic novel that follows Spiegelman’s parents’ traumatic internment at Auschwitz. Ages: 11 & up

Elementary 

Additional list of Banned and Challenged Books for Kids | Omaha Public Library

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Orphan James Henry Trotter climbs into a gigantic, magical peach and begins a new life, making friends along the way in an outrageously imaginative tale. 

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

Banned for encouraging inappropriate behavior.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Magical wardrobes, talking lions and evil queens: Narnia’s got dibs on some of the best fantasy elements ever written. But the first book in this popular series was first banned in 1990 because adults were concerned by its “graphic violence, mysticism and gore.” Then in 2005, a group focused on the separation of church and state tried banning the book from Florida’s public schools after then-Governor, Jeb Bush, promoted it in a statewide reading contest. Ages: 8 & up

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
The powerfully poignant diary of Anne Frank, who spent two years hiding from the Nazis, with her family in the cramped “Secret Annexe” of an office building, often shows up on the banned book list. Although concern over sexually explicit material is the reason usually cited, once in 1983 the Alabama State Textbook Committee tried to ban it because they thought the diary was “a real downer.” Ages: 10-13

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson 

Another Newbery Award-winner, this story of friendship and loss is a definite tearjerker. But it wasn’t the tragic death of a friend that led the New Brighton Area School District in Pennsylvania to remove it from their 5th-grade classrooms. They were concerned about the disrespect, foul language and confusion that could be created when kids read about Terabithia, the fantasy world dreamed up by BFFs Jesse and Leslie. Ages: 9 & up.

New Kid

New Kid’ was written by author Jerry Craft about his own life experiences, then a Texas school district banned it for “Critical Race Theory and Marxism.” When Jordan Banks starts at a new private school, he was one of the only students of color, and he discovers this new struggle of fitting in when there is very little diversity. New Kid is the winner of the Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award and the Kirkus Prize for Young Reader’s Literature. Ages: 8-12

The Witches by Roald Dahl

One of many censored works by Roald Dahl, his classic tale of a boy-turned-mouse and his cigar-smoking grandmother who fight against witches continues to find its way onto the list again and again and again. It was challenged at least ten times in the late 1980s and early 1990s for things like “being too sophisticated” and “not teaching moral values.” Ages: 8-12

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Censored by some schools and libraries for criticizing the foresting industry.

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

This book is every parent’s fantasy. After all, who doesn’t want a song-activated magic pot that cooks them dinner? The late Tomie dePaola’s classic tale of the Grandma Witch has been banned in several U.S. school libraries for promoting witchcraft. 

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

In the 1990s, Little House on the Prairie was banned from some classrooms because they considered the historical perspectives on race offensive.

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Kids have loved the quirky drawings and odd poetry of Shel Silverstein for generations. But in 1986, the West Allis Milwaukee School District banned this particular poetry collection because of “drug reference, suicide, death and a disrespect for truth and authority.” Shortly after, a school district in Pennsylvania did the same. Ages: 6-8

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

We dare you not to shed a tear over this touching story of a selfless tree who loves a boy. But it was a cynical interpretation of the tree’s selfless giving as “sexist content” that landed this Shel Silverstein classic on a Colorado library’s banned book list in 1988. Ages: 1-8 

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

This collection of poems by Shel Silverstein was among the 100 most frequently challenged books of the 1990s. It was censored for “suggestive illustrations” and encouraging bad behavior.

The Fighting Ground by Avi

One of Avi’s lesser-known works, it’s the story of 13-year-old Jonathan, who wants to fight beside his brother and cousin, against the British, during the Revolutionary War. This ALA-notable book was banned at the Bay District school library in 2008 over parent concerns around the use of profanity. Ages: 9 & up

This Day in June by Gayle Pitman 

This book has been challenged for its inclusion of LGBTQIA+ content. In 2019, a local religious activist checked out four copies of the book from the Orange City Public Library and burned them live over Facebook. However, not only did people send in donations to help replace the books, a GoFundMe and several Facebook fundraisers were set up, raising thousands of dollars to replace damaged materials.

Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack 

A prince and a knight in shining armor find true love in each other’s embrace after fighting a dragon together. This book was challenged and restricted for featuring a gay marriage and LGBTQIA+ content.

Something Happened in our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice by Jessica Herthel

After discussing the police shooting of a local Black man with their families, Emma and Josh know how to treat a new student who looks and speaks differently than his classmates. It includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers that provides general guidance about addressing racism with children, child-friendly vocabulary definitions, conversation guides, and a link to additional online resources for parents and teachers.

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

Sendak’s classic, comic fantasy of Mickey’s adventures in the night kitchen tells us how we get our morning cake.

Charlotte’s Web
If you haven’t read this story about humble, radiant Wilbur (a.k.a. Some Pig) then you’re in for a treat. Although a group of concerned parents disagreed in 2006. They tried to have this book banned from classrooms because they found the book’s talking animals to be disrespectful to God. Ages: 8-12

Harriet the Spy

Readers the world over love Harriet the Spy, because not only does she tells it like it is, she also rides a dumbwaiter, and who wouldn’t want to try that? Over the years, the book has been banned in school libraries because parents are concerned it teaches children to “lie, spy, talk back and curse.” Ages: 8-12

Captain Underpants series
If your kid has read the book, watched the movie and bought the T-shirt, then you’re not alone. But you might be surprised to find that this popular Dave Pilkey series was at one time the most banned book in the country. In the early books, concerns were raised over content that wasn’t suited for the age group and encouraging disobedience. The release of the 12th book caused new concerns over references to Harold being gay. Ages: 7-10

Junie B. Jones series
If you cringe every time you read Junie B. Jones to your kids and she “runned speedy quick” or “did a shrug” or commits some other crime against grammar, you’re not alone. Most of the challenges to this series are about Junie’s speech patterns and the fact it might encourage young readers to follow suit. Ages: 6-9

PreK-K

Additional list of Banned and Challenged Picture Books | Edmonton Public Library | BiblioCommons

The Family Book
Families coming in all shapes, sizes and colors is the theme of this popular Todd Parr book. But concerns over depicting families that have two moms or two dads kept this bold and colorful paperback off the shelves in the Erie School District in Illinois in 2012. Ages: 5-6

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell

First came Roy. Then came Silo. Then came a baby and made their family complete. Based on the true story of two male penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo, this ALA Notable Children’s Book made its way onto the banned book list for featuring a same-sex relationship. Ages: 2-5

Donovan’s Big Day by Leslea Newman

This book about a boy preparing for his moms’ wedding was challenged but retained at the Edmonton Public Library in 2014. 

I Am Jazz

The 10th most challenged and banned book of 2017, I am Jazz is an autobiographical picture book chronicling the early years of transgender reality TV star, Jazz Jennings. It first appeared on the banned list when a group of Wisconsin parents objected to its reading at school. They were concerned about sex education, language and offensive viewpoints. Ages: 4-8

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

You’ve read this one to your sidekick so many times, you’ve got it memorized. But when this classic hit the scene in 1963, it caused quite a stir. Banned in many southern states for depicting child abuse (the no-go supper for Max), it’s also been challenged for being “too dark” and showing supernatural elements. Ages: 4-8 

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
This story of a donkey who wishes himself into a rock set off alarm bells with the Illinois Police Association. In 1977 they challenged the book because the police are depicted as pigs in the story. In the aftermath, it was banned in many parts of the U.S. Ages: 3-7

Jacob’s New Dress
This book has been banned by a North Carolina school district claiming that the book taught children to be transgender. Jacob’s New Dress is actually about acceptance and anti-bullying when Jacob wants to wear a dress to school. Ages: 4-7

Lists of more banned books