Banned books week 2021

Believe it or not, books can be extremely controversial! Every year libraries, school districts, publishers, and book sellers get countless complaints about content of the books they make available to people.

Banned Books Week was created in order to celebrate our freedom to read. This year Banned Books Week is from September 26th through October 2nd. (That's right now!)

Each year the Office for Intellectual Freedom tracks the challenges to library, school, and university materials that people have tried to have banned and compiles a list. Here in the Canyon Library, we believe in protecting your right to free expression and free access to ideas. Students can choose any book in our library. It is up to you and your guardians to decide what that means for you.

​What follows is a list of some of the most challenged books in 2020 that you are free to check out from our library. For more information about a title, follow the link to access the book's page on Destiny Discover.

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie​​
• All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely*
• American Street by Ibi Zoboi
• Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• The Astonishing Color of After by Emily Pan*
• Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer by Gary Paulsen
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes
• Burned by Ellen Hopkins
• Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo*
• Crank by Ellen Hopkins
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Hadden
• The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
• Dear Martin by Nic Stone*
• Fallout by Ellen Hopkins
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green*
• Flamer​ by Mike Curato††
• ​Glass by Ellen Hopkins
• Go Ask Alice! by Anonymous
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas*†
• Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka
• How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter
• Identical by Ellen Hopkins
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds*†
• ​Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Lucy in the Sky by Anonymous
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
• Monster by Walter Dean Myers*
• My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King by Reymundo Sanchez
• My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• Naruto (series) by Masashi Kishimoto
• The Odyssey by Homer
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas*†
• Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo*†
• Pride by Ibi Zoboi
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Scythe by Neal Shusterman
• The Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Smoke by Ellen Hopkins
• Sold by Patricia McCormick
• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher*
• This is My America by Kim Johnson*
• Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Traffick by Ellen Hopkins
• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
• You Should See Me in a Crown​ by Leah Johnson*

* A book with this mark is also available as an eBook in Sora.
† A book with this mark is also available as an audiobook in Sora.
†† A book with this mark is only​ available in Sora (as an eBook and/or audiobook).
Bold = These books are in the Top Ten Most Challenged Books for 2020.

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Ten common reasons that books are banned or challenged:

1. ​​LGBTQ+ Content ​
2. Sexually Explicit
3. Profanity
4. Racism
5. Violence
6. Religious Viewpoint
7. Sex Education
8. Suicide
9. Drug and Alcohol Use
10. Nudity