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 February 22, 2025
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
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.
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 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 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...
Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone
Rowling, J. K.
Paper Book
Loved by millions of readers worldwide, let the first story in the greatest children's book series of all time take you on an unforgettable journey. The hope and wonder of Harry Potter's world will make you want to escape to Hogwarts again and again. The magic starts here! ...
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.&...
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 "Stunning." -...
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. ...
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 freedom....

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.