Banned Books 2025

Banned Books Week UK returns from 5–11 October 2025. It’s a week to celebrate the books that have been challenged, removed or silenced, and to stand with the people who write, sell and share them. Join Kirklees Libraries and Index on Censorship in honouring the right to read freely and the courage it takes to speak up.

www.indexoncensorship.org/bannedbooksweek

Browse, download and read from our eAudio and eBook collection of Banned Books at: kirklees.overdrive.com/bannedbooks

Updated October 7, 2025
Kirklees Libraries
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I know why the caged bird sings
Angelou, Maya
Paper Book
The international classic and bestseller, Maya Angelou's memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' (BARACK OBAMA). 'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human...
Lysistrata and other plays
Aristophanes.
Paper Book
Writing at a time when Athens was undergoing a crisis in its social attitudes, Aristophanes was an eloquent opponent of the demagogue and the sophist. This collection includes Lysistrata, the hilariously bawdy anti-war fantasy; The Acharnians, a plea for peace set against the background of the long...
The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
** THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER ** Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it' Guardian I believe in the resistance as I...
A clockwork orange
Burgess, Anthony
Paper Book
The fully restored fiftieth anniversary edition Foreword by Martin Amis First published by William Heinemann in 1962, A Clockwork Orange is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. This special edition, compiled and edited by...
Wild swans : three daughters of China
Chang, Jung
Paper Book
OVER 13M COPIES SOLD - THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING PHENOMENON - NUMBER 8 ON SUNDAY TIMES BEST OF THE BESTSELLER LIST Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular bestseller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of...
The perks of being a wallflower
Chbosky, Stephen
Paper Book
A modern cult classic, a major motion picture and a timeless bestseller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story.  Charlie is not the biggest geek in high school, but he's by no means popular. Shy,...
The witches
Dahl, Roald; Blake, Quentin
Paper Book
BEWARE. Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look like ordinary women. But they are not ordinary. They are always plotting and scheming with murderous, bloodthirsty thoughts - and they hate children. The Grand High Witch hates children most of all and plans to make...
This book is gay
Dawson, James; Gerrell, Spike
Paper Book
A funny and pertinent book about being lesbian, bisexual, gay, queer, transgender or just curious - for everybody, no matter their gender or sexuality
American psycho
Ellis, Bret Easton
Paper Book
One of the most controversial and talked-about novels of all time. Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho is a multi-million-copy bestseller hailed as a modern classic - a violent and outrageous black comedy about the darkest side of human nature. With an introduction by...
Snow falling on cedars
Guterson, David
Paper Book
In 1954, a fisherman is found dead in the nets of his boat, and a local Japanese-American man is charged with his murder. In the course of his trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than one man's guilt. For on San Piedro, memories grow as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe...
The well of loneliness
Hall, Radclyffe
Paper Book
First published in 1928, this timeless portrayal of lesbian love is now a classic. The thinly disguised story of Hall's own life, it was banned outright upon publication and almost ruined her literary career.
Kite Runner, The
Hosseini, Khaled
Paper Book
Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the...
Brave new world
Huxley, Aldous
Paper Book
Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here. INTRODUCED BY MARGARET ATWOOD Our perfect society achieves peace and stability by dispensing with monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs. You can be happy too. All you need to...
Metamorphosis and other stories
Kafka, Franz
Paper Book
This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he himself thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; Meditation, a collection of his earlier...
One flew over the cuckoo's nest
Kesey, Ken
Paper Book
Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse...
To kill a mockingbird
Lee, Harper
Paper Book
ONE OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVELS EVER WRITTEN WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 'No one forgets this book' Independent 'One of the best first novels I remember ... uniquely unsentimental' Guardian 'There is humour as well as...
The giver
Lowry, Lois
Paper Book
In a perfect world, Jonas begins to see the flaws... THE GIVER is the classic award-winning novel that inspired the dystopian genre and a major motion picture adaptation for 2014 starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift. It is the future....
China dream
Ma, Jian
Paper Book
A poetic and unflinching fable about tyranny, guilt, and the erasure of history, by the banned Chinese writer hailed as 'China's Solzhenitsyn'. In seven dream-like episodes, Ma Jian charts the psychological disintegration of a Chinese provincial leader who is haunted by nightmares...
A court of mist and fury
Maas, Sarah J.
Paper Book
The second instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan - Time Think...
Beloved
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
Discover Toni Morrison's most iconic work in this Pulitzer-prize winning novel that exemplifies her powerful and important place in contemporary American literature. 'An American masterpiece' AS Byatt It is the mid-1800s and as slavery looks to be coming to an...
Lolita
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich
Paper Book
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than Lolita, who he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? ...Or is he all of these?
Breathless
Niven, Jennifer
Paper Book
Your first love, your first time, your first heartbreak. The new novel from Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright Places. You were my first. Not just sex, although that was part of it, but the first to look past everything else into me. Some of the names and...
Animal farm : a fairy story
Orwell, George
Paper Book
Renowned urban artist Shepard Fairey's new look for Orwell's timeless satire 'All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.' Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the...
Heartstopper. Volume 1
Oseman, Alice
Paper Book
*Now a live-action Netflix series!* Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. Heartstopper is the bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel: this new edition - with a cover including Alice Oseman's artwork and photographs showing characters from the Netflix show - also contains...
Captain Underpants and the sensational saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot
Pilkey, Dav
Paper Book
CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS returns! George and Harold, and their doubles, Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold, have a good thing going. Two of them go to school, while the other two hide in the tree house and play video games all day -- then they switch! But when their malicious gym teacher, Mr. Meaner,...
All Quiet on the Western Front
Remarque, Erich Maria
Paper Book
All Quiet on the Western Front is probably the most famous anti-war novel ever written. The story is told by a young 'unknown soldier' in the trenches of Flanders during the First World War. Through his eyes we see all the realities of war; under fire, on patrol, waiting in the trenches, at...
Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging : you'll laugh your knickers off
Rennison, Louise
Paper Book
Brilliantly funny, teenage angst author Louise Rennison's first book about the confessions of crazy but lovable Georgia Nicolson. Now repackaged in a gorgeous new paperback and looking even fabber than ever. Louise is an international bestselling author and her books can't fail to make you laugh...
Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone [25th Anniversary Ed.]
Rowling, J. K.
Paper Book
Galloping gargoyles ... 2022 is the silver anniversary of J.K. Rowling's magical classic Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone! In celebration of 25 years of Harry Potter magic, Bloomsbury is proud to be releasing a special commemorative edition featuring the much loved original cover...
The Satanic Verses
Rushdie, Salman
Ebook
Just before dawn one winter's morning, a hijacked aeroplane blows apart high above the English Channel and two figures tumble, clutched in an embrace, towards the sea: Gibreel Farishta, India's legendary movie star, and Saladin Chamcha, the man of a thousand voices. Washed up, alive,...
The catcher in the rye
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
It's Christmas and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school. Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters - shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by...
The complete Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane
Paper Book
Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up as a girl in Iran during the revolution has for twenty years been a classroom staple, a feminist manifesto, and one of the most popular and widely known graphic novels of all time. <...
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Twain, Mark
Paper Book
Huckleberry Finn had a tough life with his drunk father until an adventure with Tom Sawyer changed everything. But when Huck's dad returns and kidnaps him, he must escpe down the Mississippi river with runaway slave, Jim. They encounter trouble at every turn, from floods and gunfights to armed...
Slaughterhouse-Five
Vonnegut, Kurt.
Ebook
Adapted for a magnificent George Roy Hill film three years later (perhaps the only film adaptation of a masterpiece which exceeds its source), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) is the now famous parable of Billy Pilgrim, a World War II veteran and POW, who has in the later stage of his life...
The color purple
Walker, Alice
Paper Book

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