Freedom to Read

One of the most challenged books in the United States, Gender Queer is a graphic novel and autobiography charting the author's journey of self-identity. Challenged for LGBTQ themes and brief depictions of sexuality.

Uprooted from their family home in the Dominican Republic, the four Garcia sisters-Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofia-arrive in New York City in 1960 to find a life far different from the genteel existence of maids, manicures, and extended family they left behind. Challenged for profanity and depictions of drug use, violence, sexuality.

Marjane Satrapi's acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Challenged for language, reference to torture and unspecified "inappropriate images"

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores their childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. Challenged for LGBTQ themes

From Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison comes the story of a young black girl who longs to be like the blond, blue-eyed children that America loves-a novel "so charged with pain and wonder that it becomes poetry" (The New York Times). Challenged for depictions of sexual violence.

Alison Bechdel's groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts her fraught relationship with her late father. Challenged for LGBT issues and depictions of nudity and sexuality.

Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Challenged for profanity and depictions of sexuality

A modern classic--both poignant and funny--about a boy with autism who sets out to solve the murder of a neighbor's dog and discovers unexpected truths about himself and the world. Challenged for profanity and atheism

The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in modern fiction. 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 language and depictions of violence, sexuality ,and incest.

A critically acclaimed novel from 1960 in which a White lawyer defends an innocent Black man wrongly accused of raping a White woman. Challenged for use of racist language and discussion of sexual violence.

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Challenged for depictions of violence, sex, and racism.