The best way to fight book banning is to read banned books!
Queens Public Library is joining libraries and readers across the country during Banned Books Week (October 1-7) and beyond to celebrate the Freedom to Read.
Join us for our virtual and in-person programs, help us stand up for banned books and authors on social media, and check out our lists below of some of the most banned books in America. Then, visit your local library, where all books are welcome, and read them for yourself!
Banned Books Week: NYC Day of Action
QPL's 100 Most Popular Banned Books
50 of the Most Banned Books in America: Borrow Them from QPL
QPL’s Banned Books Programs
We will be hosting several programs during Banned Books Week and the month of October celebrating the freedom to read. Here are some interesting and educational ones that we hope you will attend.
Visit the QPL Calendar to see the entire list.
Banned Books Week: Make-A-Mural
October 2, October 4, and October 6, 4pm
Arverne Library, 312 Beach 54 Street
Join us to create a mural of banned books with found objects, pen-and-ink collage, and your original design inspiration.
Banned Books Week: Quieting Queer Reads: A History of LGBTQ+ Book Bans in the U.S.
October 4, 5pm
Virtual
Join the American LGBTQ+ Museum for a conversation between Cory Silverberg, Brenda Bowen, Maya Gonzalez, Raquel Willis, and Asher MacInnis-Call, moderated by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz and to discuss the history of book banning in the U.S., and the impact of censorship and erasure for LGBTQ+ youth. Stay after the conversation to participate in a hands-on, zine-making workshop at Central Library, led by learner, educator, and zine maker Neta Bomani. All ages are welcome.
Banned Books Week: Open Mic Reading
October 5, 6:30pm
Peninsula Library, 92-25 Rockaway Beach Boulevard
Bring your favorite banned book or get a copy at your branch for Banned Books Open Mic. Come read an excerpt from your favorite banned book and share your thoughts about the book and why it resonates.
Banned Books Week: Friends of Ridgewood Library Banned Book Giveaway
October 7, 12pm
Ridgewood Library, 20-12 Madison Street
Join the Friends of Ridgewood Library to honor banned and challenged books with a free book giveaway. Supplies are limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Literature to Life Stage Presentation: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
October 7, 2pm
Forest Hills Library, 108-19 71 Avenue
Literature to Life will bring Ray Bradbury's terrifyingly recognizable vision of the future to the stage. Take part in the discussion that follows the performance.
Banned Books Week: NYC Day of Action
On Wednesday, October 4, during Banned Books Week, New York City’s libraries invite you to join us on social media and support the #FreedomToRead!
You can share our special Day of Action graphics, a picture of a banned or challenged book that means a lot to you, or a message that shows how much you oppose book bans.
Let’s stand up to censorship! Visit our blog post to Learn More.
QPL's 100 Most Popular Banned Books
Get inspired by our list of the 100 most popular banned and challenged books in circulation at Queens Public Library during the past decade.
How many of them have you read? Use our list to check them out from your local library!
50 of the Most Banned Books in America
From July 2021 to June 2022, more than 1,600 books were banned from school libraries, according to a report from PEN America, an organization dedicated to defending writers, artists, and journalists and protecting free expression worldwide.
Using data supplied by PEN America, and first compiled by CBS News, here’s a list of the 50 most commonly banned books in America from the 2021-2022 school year, along with links that you can use to borrow them from your local QPL branch, download them as eBooks, read them in different languages, and more.
Learn more about book bans in the United States by reading PEN America’s report and visiting the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week webpage.
1. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (Adult & Young Adult)
Book | eBook
2. All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
3. Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
4. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | French | Spanish
5. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
6. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Chinese | Spanish | Turkish
7. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
8. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
9. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Spanish
10. Crank by Ellen Hopkins (Young Adult)
Book | Audiobook | Spanish
11. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Chinese | French | Gujarati | Hebrew | Korean | Russian | Spanish | Ukrainian
12. l8r, g8r by Lauren Myracle (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
13. This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
14. Melissa (previously published as George) by Alex Gino (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
15. Looking for Alaska by John Green (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
16. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin (Young Adult)
Book | eBook (Boundless) | eBook (OverDrive)
17. Beloved by Toni Morrison (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Chinese | Korean | Russian | Spanish | Spanish eBook
18. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
19. Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Children’s)
Book | eBook | French | Spanish
20. Flamer by Mike Curato (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
21. Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts) by L. C. Rosen (Young Adult)
22. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Graphic Novel | Graphic Novel eBook | Chinese | Hebrew | Korean | Spanish
23. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (Adult)
Book | eBook | Russian
24. The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson (Children’s)
Book | eBook
25. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
26. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Spanish
27. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
28. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins (Young Adult)
29. More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
30. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Spanish
31. It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health
by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley (Children's)
Book | eBook | Spanish
32. Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
33. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Spanish
34. Sold by Patricia McCormick (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
35. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives
by Dashka Slater (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
36. Dear Martin by Nic Stone (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
37. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Korean
38. Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
39. Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
40. Real Live Boyfriends: Yes. Boyfriends, Plural. If My Life Weren't Complicated, I Wouldn't Be Ruby Oliver by E. Lockhart (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
41. The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
42. Lucky by Alice Sebold (Adult)
Book | Russian
43. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
44. We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
45. I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Spanish
46. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
47. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
48. The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
49. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Spanish
50. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, and Henry Cole (Children's)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
