Banned Books & Censorship

As part of our Civic Engagement project, here's a selection of books, articles, podcasts, and other resources related to banned books and censorship issues.

Questions? Suggestions? Contact us at info@mgpl.org or 847-965-4220.

 

Books for Children (Fiction) 

• Arthur and the Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club by Marc Tolon Brown
• The Rabbits’ Rebellion by Ariel Dorfman
• The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter
• The Inquisitor's Tale, or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz
• Ban This Book by Alan Gratz
• Property of the Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes
• Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics by Chris Grabenstein

 

Books for Children (Nonfiction) 

• You Can’t Read This!: Why Books Get Banned by Pamela Dell
• Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers by Judy Blume

 

Resources for Parents 

• The Kids’ Right to Read Toolkit: An Action Guide for Students and Parents, National Coalition Against Censorship
• Banned & Challenged Books, American Library Association

 

Books for Teens (Fiction) 

• Radio Silence by Alice Oseman 
• The List by Patricia Forde 
• Disclose by Joelle Charbonneau 
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 
• Americus by M.K. Reed 

 

Books for Teens (Nonfiction) 

• Banned Book Club by Hyun Sook Kim 

 

Books for Adults (Fiction) 

• The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott 
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai 
• V for Vendetta by Alan Moore 
• Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriyār Mandanīʹpūr 
• Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
• 1984 by George Orwell 
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

 

Books for Adults (Nonfiction) 

• Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi
• Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News by Eric Berkowitz
• Silenced in the Library: Banned Books in America by Zeke Jarvis 
• Intellectual Freedom: Stories from a Shifting Landscape 
• Book Banning in 21st-Century America by Emily Knox 
• Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control by Matthew Fellion 

 

Articles 

• Book Banning in America (The New York Times)
• Books Behind Bars (PBS)
• Banned Books by Claire Mullally and Andrew Gargano (Freedom Forum Institute)
• Banned and Burned: Banning Books Should be a Thing of the Past by Tawney Beans (University of Cincinnati)

 

Documentaries & Videos 

• Beyond Banned Books: Censorship in Education (PBS)
• An Evening of Forbidden Books (PEN America)

 

Podcasts 

• So to Speak, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, University of Pennsylvania 
• The New Censorship, BBC Radio 
• Banned Library 
• We Read Banned Books, EverGreen, Professional Book Nerds