We're proud to continue the fight against censorship and spotlight banned books.
We're inspired by this list of the 100 most popular banned and challenged books in circulation at Queens Public Library during the past decade.
These stories will open your mind to new perspectives, cultures, surroundings, and beyond. Perfect for inquisitive readers, they don’t shy away from the truth—in fact, they get right to it, with humor, heart, wisdom, and suspense.
Click on the links below to learn more about these books and borrow them online and from your local QPL branch, including copies in several international languages!
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Spanish
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Korean
Feed by M.T. Anderson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | French | Russian
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (Beatrice Sparks) (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Spanish
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Spanish
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (Adult)
Book | eBook | Russian
City of Thieves by David Benioff (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake (Children’s)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Spanish
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | French | Korean | Polish | Russian | Spanish
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Polish | Spanish
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | French | Italian | Spanish
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Korean | Malayalam | Spanish | Urdu
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Korean | Polish | Russian | Spanish
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney (Young Adult)
Book | Russian
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Chinese
Class Act by Jerry Craft (Children’s)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
New Kid by Jerry Craft (Children’s)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Spanish
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Spanish
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Spanish
Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Korean | Polish | Russian | Spanish
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Dutch | French | German | Korean | Russian | Spanish | Yiddish
Melissa (previously published as George) by Alex Gino (Children’s)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Korean | Russian | Spanish
Ground Zero by Alan Gratz (Children’s)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Albanian | Korean | Russian | Spanish
Looking for Alaska by John Green (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Adult)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Hebrew | Italian
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Italian | Polish | Russian
I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel & Jazz Jennings (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Spanish
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Russian | Spanish
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | French | Gujarati | Hebrew | Korean | Russian | Spanish | Ukrainian
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Hebrew
We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Korean | Russian | Spanish
Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson (Children’s)
Book | eBook
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (Adult)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook | Russian | Spanish
Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction
by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Young Adult)
Lily the Thief by Janne Kukkonen (Children’s)
Book | eBook
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | French | Hebrew | Italian | Korean | Latin | Polish | Russian | Serbian | Spanish
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Spanish | Thai
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
Proxy by Alex London (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (Children’s)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (Adult)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook | Spanish
Sold by Patricia McCormick (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Spanish
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Arabic | Chinese | Hebrew | Italian | Korean | Polish | Russian | Spanish
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Korean | Polish | Russian | Spanish
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | French | Spanish
Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman (Children’s)
Book | eBook
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (Adult)
Book | eBook | Russian
1984 by George Orwell (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | French | Hebrew | Italian | Korean | Malayalam | Polish | Russian | Spanish
White Bird: A Wonder Story by R.J. Palacio (Children’s)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook | Spanish
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (Adult)
Book | eBook | Chinese | Korean | Russian | Spanish
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Polish | Spanish
A Child Called “It”: One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Italian | Spanish
This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman & Kristyna Litten (Children’s)
Book | eBook
A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée (Children’s)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook | Spanish
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Spanish
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Spanish
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Children's)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, and Henry Cole (Children's)
Book | Audiobook | eAudiobook
So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson (Adult)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Arabic | Chinese | French | Italian | Spanish
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Spanish
Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Chinese | French
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Chinese | Hebrew | Spanish
Sex Is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings, and YOU
by Cory Silverberg & Fiona Smyth (Children’s)
Book | eBook
Bone: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith (Children’s)
The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith (Children’s)
Maus by Art Spiegelman (Young Adult)
Book | Spanish
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Chinese | French | Korean | Russian
Dear Martin by Nic Stone (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | eAudiobook
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Children’s)
Book | eBook | French | Spanish
Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Modern Graphic Retelling of Little Women
by Rey Terciero & Bre Indigo (Children’s)
Book | eBook
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Spanish | Turkish
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan (Young Adult)
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | Russian
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (Adult)
Book | eBook | French | Korean
Go With the Flow by Lily Williams & Karen Schneemann (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (Children’s)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook
Native Son by Richard Wright (Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook
American Street by Ibi Zoboi (Young Adult)
Book | eBook
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Young Adult)
Book | eBook | Audiobook | eAudiobook | Chinese | Italian | Korean | Persian | Russian | Spanish
