Banned Books Week 2025 🚫

Banned Books Week has been held annually since 1982 to raise awareness of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools, and highlight the value of free and open access to information.

The 2025 theme is Censorship Is So 1984—Read for Your Rights

Updated June 17, 2025
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The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret 1939-
Paper Book
Now a Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss. The Handmaid's Tale is an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (New York Times) The Handmaid's Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its...
1984 : a novel
Orwell, George 1903-1950
Paper Book
Portrays a terrifying vision of life in the future when a totalitarian government, considered a Negative Utopia, watches over all citizens and directs all activities, becoming more powerful as time goes by.
Beloved : a novel
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A spellbinding novel that transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.  This "brutally powerful, mesmerizing story" (People) is an unflinchingly...
Persepolis : the story of a childhood
Satrapi, Marjane 1969-
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. "A wholly original achievement.... Satrapi evokes herself and her schoolmates coming of age in a...
They came for the schools : one town's fight over race and identity, and the new war for America's classrooms
Hixenbaugh, Mike (Journalist)
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER The urgent, revelatory story of how a school board win for the conservative right in one Texas suburb inspired a Christian nationalist campaign now threatening to undermine public education in America--from an NBC investigative reporter and co-creator of...
Lies that kill a citizen's guide to disinformation
Kamarck, Elaine Ciulla
Paper Book
"Writing in a clear and comprehensive writing style, [the authors] show how the U.S. political, social, and economic environments make disinformation believable to large numbers of people and difficult to stop or prevent." - Library Journal, Starred Review ...
On censorship : a public librarian examines cancel culture in the US
LaRue, James 1954-
Paper Book
"An insightful and humorous look into the complex issues of censorship, Jamie LaRue's book is at times intellectually and emotionally challenging--like all of the best books should be."  --R. Alan Brooks, Comics Creator and Professor, Professor of Graphic Narrative, Regis University<...
The Constitution explained : a guide for every American
Hudson, David L. 1969-
Paper Book
The United States Constitution is a short document, and it is written in general language, which leaves much of the meaning unwritten and open to interpretation. Dig into this important document and watershed in the history of governments! ...
The Banned Books Club
Novak, Brenda
Paper Book
"A sharply plotted, emotionally intense novel of family secrets, fresh starts and community" --Jayne Ann Krentz She left her hometown following a scandal--but family loyalty is dragging her back... Despite their strained relationship, when Gia...
The satanic verses
Rushdie, Salman.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its psychological truths."--Newsday ...
A stolen life : a memoir
Dugard, Jaycee Lee 1980-
Paper Book
An instant #1 New York Times bestseller--Jaycee Dugard's raw and powerful memoir, her own story of being kidnapped in 1991 and held captive for more than eighteen years. In the summer of June of 1991, I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother that...
The Freedom Writers diary : how a teacher and 150 teens used writing to change themselves and the world around them
Freedom Writers
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER .The twentieth anniversary edition of the classic story of an incredible group of students and the teacher who inspired them, featuring updates on the students' lives, new journal entries, and an introduction by Erin Gruwell Now a public television...

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