Freedom to Read Week

A selection of titles that have been banned or challenged in Canada. Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed to them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Updated January 31, 2026
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Pride puppy!
Stevenson, Robin
Paper Book
★"[A] sheer delight and will be a welcome addition to shelves everywhere. Highly--and proudly--recommended." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review ★ "This engaging introduction to Pride parades for the youngest readers successfully testifies to the warmth and power of queer...
Fall on your knees
MacDonald, Ann-Marie
Paper Book
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Following the curves of history in the first half of the twentieth century, Fall On Your Knees takes us from haunted Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, through the battle fields of World War One, to the emerging jazz scene of...
A court of thorns and roses
Maas, Sarah J.
Paper Book
THE INSTANTNEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLER Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R.R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down! When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like...
Milk and honey
Kaur, Rupi
Paper Book
"Rupi Kaur is the Writer of the Decade." - The New Republic   #1 New York Times bestseller milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love...
We have always been here : a queer Muslim memoir
Habib, Samra
Paper Book
Samra Habib has spent most of her life searching for the safety to be herself. The men in her life wanted to police her, the women had only shown her the example of pious obedience, and her body was a problem to be solved. A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have...
Fourth Wing
Yarros, Rebecca
Paper Book
A #1 New York Times bestseller * TV series in development at MGM Amazon Studios with Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society * Amazon Best Books of the Year, #4 * Apple Best Books of the Year 2023 * Barnes & Noble Best Fantasy Book of 2023 * NPR "Books We Love" 2023 * Audible Best Books of...
Heartstopper. Volume 1
Oseman, Alice
Paper Book
*Acclaimed live-action Netflix series* *Winner of Best Book I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time - TikTok Book Awards* 'Absolutely delightful. Sweet, romantic, kind. Beautifully paced. I loved this book.' - Rainbow Rowell, author of...
This one summer
Tamaki, Mariko
Paper Book
Winner of the Governor General's Award for Children's Illustration Rose and Windy are summer friends whose families have visited Awago Beach for as long as they can remember. But this year is different, and they soon find themselves tangled in teen love and family crisis. From the creators...
The Book of Negroes: A Novel
Hill, Lawrence
Paper Book
The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret Eleanor
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (New York Times) * The sixth and final season of the award-winning Hulu series starring Elisabeth Moss is now streaming * Includes an...
The diviners
Laurence, Margaret
Paper Book
In The Diviners, Morag Gunn, a middle aged writer who lives in a farmhouse on the Canadian prairie, struggles to understand the loneliness of her eighteen-year-old daughter. With unusual wit and depth, Morag recognizes that she needs solitude and work as much as she needs the love of her...
The wars
Findley, Timothy
Paper Book
Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer, went to war--The War to End All Wars. He found himself in the nightmare world of trench warfare, of mud and smoke, of chlorine gas and rotting corpses. In this world gone mad, Robert Ross performed a last desperate act to declare his...
The golden compass
Pullman, Philip
Paper Book
The modern fantasy classic that Entertainment Weekly named an "All-Time Greatest Novel" and Newsweek hailed as a "Top 100 Book of All Time." Philip Pullman takes readers to a world where humans have animal familiars and where parallel universes are within reach. ...
The hate u give
Thomas, Angie
Paper Book
8 starred reviews · Goodreads Choice Awards Best of the Best · William C. Morris Award Winner · National Book Award Longlist · Printz Honor Book · Coretta Scott King Honor Book · #1 New York Times Bestseller! "Absolutely riveting!" --Jason Reynolds ...
To kill a mockingbird
Lee, Harper.
Paper Book
The explosion of racial hate and violence in a small Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape.
Underground to Canada
Smucker, Barbara
Paper Book
There's a place the slaves been whisperin' around called Canada. The law don't allow no slavery there. They say you follow the North Star, and when you step onto this land you are free ...... Taken away from her mother by a ruthless slave trader, all Julilly has left is the dream of...
The apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Richler, Mordecai
Paper Book
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is the novel that established Mordecai Richler as one of the world’s best comic writers. Growing up in the heart of Montreal’s Jewish ghetto, Duddy Kravitz is obsessed with his grandfather’s saying, “A man without land is nothing.&...

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