Books on On Censorship & Book Banning for Early Grades, Middle Grades, & Teens
1. Early Grades
Arthur and the Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club
by Marc Brown
When a parent group bans a series of scary books from the local public library, Arthur and his friends devise a plan to get their favorite books returned.
Banned Book
by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Gary Kelley. Creative Editions, 2023.
Picture book about the censoring of books to prevent kids from being able to read them.
Book Comes Home: A Banned Book’s Journey
by Rob Sanders, illustrated by Micah Player. Random House, 2025
The story of how sad a book was when it was banned and what happened after it was rescued (with the help of kids who wanted it.
Roar for Reading
by Beth Ferry; illustrated by Andrew Joyner
Libraries and lions have a history so long no one's quite sure how it began--maybe because books were once rare and needed fierce protectors? Still, it's been a very long time since lions had to roar in the name of books. But when young Julius finds out that books are being banned at his local library, he becomes so filled with emotion that he ROARS! Not all lions are librarians, but all librarians are lions in this inspiring tale of protecting the stories that connect us and defending books that hold ideas that can change the world.
The Book Tree
by Paul Czajak; illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh
When young Arlo accidentally drops a book on the Mayor’s head, the Mayor decides books are dangerous and destroys all the books in town! But thanks to Arlo’s imagination and perseverance, the Mayor finds that suppressing stories cannot stop them from blossoming more beautifully than ever.
The Sad Little Fact
by Jonah Winter; illustrated by Pete Oswald
Follow a sad little fact that is locked away for telling the truth. In its underground prison, it meets other facts, all hidden away because they could not lie. Finally, with the help of a few skillful fact finders, the facts are able to spread truth--something that ultimately can't be denied. Though some people continue to ignore them, the facts are out in the world, ready for anyone who wants to hear, because "a fact is a fact," and that's that.
This Book Is Banned
by Raj Haldar; illustrated by Julia Patton
This is a book about dinosaurs. No it's not. Dinosaurs are not allowed. Oh. This is now a book about avocados! Sorry. We deleted those too. FINE. This book is about—nope! Forbidden! Maybe you shouldn't even try reading this book…But what could possibly be inside? Discover just what can happen when ideas are erased instead of expressed with this hilarious picture book romp that kids (and grown-ups) will want to read over and over again.
2. Middle Grades
Answers in the Pages
by David Levithan
When his mother rallies other parents to pull the book he’s reading from the district curriculum because it depicts a relationship between two boys, Donovan must speak up and stand out to stop this book from being banned.
Attack of the Black Rectangles
by Amy Sarig King
Mac and his friends discover portions of Jane Yolen’s The Devil’s Arithmetic in their classroom are blacked out. When their concerns aren’t taken seriously by the administration, they find new ways to make their voices heard.
Ban This Book
by Alan Gratz
A fourth grader fights back when From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg is challenged by a well-meaning parent and taken off the shelves of her school library. Amy Anne is shy and soft-spoken, but don't mess with her when it comes to her favorite book in the whole world. Amy Anne and her lieutenants wage a battle for the books as they start a secret banned books locker library, make up ridiculous reasons to ban every single book in the library to make a point, and take a stand against censorship.
Finally Seen
by Kelly Yang
When 10-year-old Lina Gao steps off the plane in Los Angeles, it’s her first time in America and the first time seeing her parents and her little sister in five years! She’s been waiting for this moment every day while she lived with her grandmother in Beijing, getting teased by kids at school who called her “left behind girl.” As she reckons with her hurt, Lina tries to keep a lid on her feelings, both at home and at school. When her teacher starts facing challenges for her latest book selection, a book that deeply resonates with Lina, it will take all of Lina’s courage and resilience to get over her fear and choose a future where she’s finally seen.
Ink Girls
by Marieke Nijkamp; illustrated by Sylvia Bi
Set in the Italian Renaissance, two girls from very different walks of life join forces to fight censorship and protect the people they love.
Landry News
by Andrew Clements; illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca
Cara Landry is a budding journalist. When she posts a scathing editorial about her burned-out teacher on the bulletin board one afternoon, everything changes. Prodded into action for the first time in years, Mr. Larson challenges his fifth-grade students to create a real newspaper. Soon The Landry News gets more attention than either Cara or her teacher bargained for, as the principal uses the paper to try to get Mr. Larson fired. While the whole town is swept up in a dramatic debate over The Landry News and the First Amendment, Mr. Larson uses the controversy as raw material for some of the finest teaching of his career. And Cara and her classmates learn the importance of tempering a newspaper's truth with mercy. But will their lessons cost Mr. Larson his job?
Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics
by Chris Grabenstein
Mr. Lemoncello has invited teams from all across America to compete in the first ever Library Olympics...but someone is trying to censor what the kids are reading.
Not Another Banned Book
by Dana Alison Levy. Delacourt Press, 2024.
A young adult novel about an eighth grade girl [Molly] putting her life back together after her brother’s death and had found teacher’s school book club really helpful. But anonymous complaints about the book club and the books they were reading led to it being suspended indefinitely. Molly and her friends take action, including a school walkout. She found battling injustice only the beginning.
Property of the Rebel Librarian
by Allison Varnes
Twelve-year-old June Harper, shocked when her parents go on a campaign to clear the Dogwood Middle School library of objectionable books, starts a secret banned books library in an empty locker.
The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale
by Aya Khalil; illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan
Upon learning that the books with kids who look like her have been banned by her school district, Kanzi descends into fear and helplessness. But her classmates support her, and together--with their teacher's help--they hatch a plan to hold a bake sale and use the proceeds to buy diverse books to donate to libraries.
The Library of Ever
by Alexander Zeno
Lenora is having a very frustrating summer while her parents have adventures around the globe--until she discovers a strange doorway in her local library. It leads to the Library--the ultimate library, filled with all the knowledge of the universe. And Lenora steps right up to become its newest apprentice librarian. Lenora's new job rockets her across the globe and into outer space, to a future filled with robots, and to a dark nothingness that wants to destroy the library. She quickly learns the only way to save it might be unlocking the knowledge inside its endless shelves. . . . The Library of Ever is an adventure across time and space, but more importantly across human knowledge, as a young girl discovers what makes books truly magical.
The Ninja Librarians: The Accidental Keyhand
by Jen Swann Downey
Dorrie and her brother Marcus accidently open a portal to Petrarch's Library, where they discover a secret society of warrior librarians who travel in time, protecting the world's greatest thinkers from torture and death for sharing knowledge and ideas.
Words on Fire
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Avoiding the occupying Cossack soldiers who would force everyone to become Russian, a farm girl from Lithuania helps her family preserve her culture, literature and religion when she is forced to leave her parents behind to escape with an important package.
3. Teens
Americus
by M.K. Reed; art by Jonathan Hill
Neal Barton just wants to read in peace. Unluckily for him, some local Christian activists are trying to get his favorite fantasy series banned from the Americus public library on grounds of immoral content and heresy. Something has to be done, and it looks like quiet, shy Neal is going to have to do it. With youth services librarian Charlotte Murphy at his back, Neal finds himself leading the charge to defend the mega-bestselling fantasy series that makes his life worth living.
Banned Book Club
by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada; art by Ko Hyung-Ju
The gripping true story of a South Korean woman's student days under an authoritarian regime in the early 1980s, and how she defied state censorship through the rebellion of reading.
Library Wars series
story and art by Kiiro Yumi
Iku Kasahara has dreamed of joining the Library Defense Force ever since one of its soldiers stepped in to protect her favorite book from being confiscated in a bookstore, but now that she's a recruit, her dream job is more like a nightmare.
Miles Morales: Suspended
by Jason Reynolds; illustrated by Zeke Peña
Miles Morales puts his Spidey sense to use when his latest rival threatens literature sharing Black and brown history.
Rebelwing
by Andrea Tang
Prudence Wu is used to life throwing her some unpleasant surprises—she goes to prep school, after all, and selling banned media across the border in a country with a ruthless corporate government obviously has its risks. But a cybernetic dragon? That's new. She tries to forget about the fact that the only reason she's not in jail is because some sort of robot saved her, and that she's going to have to get a new side job now that enforcers are on to her. So she's not exactly thrilled when Rebelwing shows up again. Even worse, it's become increasingly clear that the rogue machine has imprinted on her permanently, which means she'd better figure out this whole piloting-a-dragon thing—fast. Because Rebelwing just happens to be the ridiculously expensive weapon her government needs in a brewing war with its neighbor, and Pru's the only one who can fly it.
Suggested Reading
by Dave Connis
When the principal at Lupton Academy posts a "prohibited media" hit list, Clara Evans is horrified. Students caught with the contraband will be punished. Clara starts an UnLib—an underground library—in her locker. When one of the books she loves most is connected to a tragedy she never saw coming, Clara is forced to face her role in it.
The Day They Came To Arrest the Book
by Nat Hentoff
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is under attack at George Mason High and school editor Barney Roth knows it is time to print his school's censorship story, but he may be too late.
The List
by Patricia Forde
Letta, charged with collecting and saving words, uncovers a sinister plan to suppress language, robbing the people of Ark of the power of speech, and realizes she must also save the culture, itself.
The Sound of Stars
by Alechia Dow
Planet Earth is occupied by aliens called the Ilori, because human emotional expression is grounds for execution, books, music, and art have all been outlawed, but when an alien finds seventeen-year-old Ellie's secret library it changes things for both of them.
This Book Won't Burn
by Samira Ahmed
High school senior Noor takes a stand against book censorship after discovering that a new school board policy will result in the removal of hundreds of books from BIPOC authors.
Verify
by Joelle Charbonneau
Meri Beckley lives in a world without lies. When she looks at the peaceful Chicago streets, she feels pride in the era of unprecedented hope and prosperity over which the governor presides. But when her mother is killed, Meri suddenly has questions that no one else seems to be asking. And when she tries to uncover her mother’s state of mind in her last weeks, she finds herself drawn into a secret world with a history she didn’t know existed. Suddenly, Meri is faced with a choice between accepting the “truth” or embracing a world the government doesn’t want anyone to see—a world where words have the power to change the course of a country and where the wrong ones can get Meri killed.