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This list contains young adult books that have been challenged. It is not a comprehensive list; please refer to sources such as NCTE’s Intellectual Freedom Center or ALA’s Banned & Challenged Books for more information. The main page of this guide also includes resources for further research.
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian — Sherman Alexie, 2007
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
All Boys Aren’t Blue — George M. Johnson, 2020
A memoir-manifesto about growing up queer and Black in the United States.
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging — Louise Rennison, 2000
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.
Annie on My Mind — Nancy Garden, 1982
Liza puts aside her feelings for Annie after the disaster at school, but eventually she allows love to triumph over the ignorance of people.
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out — Susan Kuklin, 2014
Interviews with six transgender teenagers about what it is like to grow up trans.
The Chocolate War — Robert Cormier, 1974
A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school’s annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies.
The Dark is Rising — Susan Cooper, 1973
Will Stanton discovers the role he must play in the struggle to overcome the powers of the Dark.
Deenie — Judy Blume, 1973
A thirteen-year-old girl seemingly destined for a modeling career finds she has a deformation of the spine called scoliosis.
The Face on the Milk Carton — Caroline Cooney, 1990
A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity.
Fallen Angels — Walter Dean Myers, 1988
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Feed — Matthew Tobin Anderson, 2002
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
Flamer — Mike Curato, 2020
A semi-autobiographical graphic novel about Aiden’s experience at a summer camp in the 1990s. Aiden has a crush on another boy at the camp, Elias and has to reconcile those feelings with his Catholic upbringing.
Forever — Judy Blume, 1975
Katherine, a senior in high school, deals with the ups and downs of teenage relationships.
Gender Queer — Maia Kobabe, 2019
A graphic-novel memoir about coming to terms with being transgender and asexual.
Go Ask Alice — Anonymous, 1971
A novel in diary form of a fifteen-year-old girl’s journey from a secure middle class family to the nightmare world of drug addiction, hustlers, and dealers.
The Golden Compass — Philip Pullman, 1995
Accompanied by her shape-shifting daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
The Hate U Give — Angie Thomas, 2017
After witnessing her friend’s death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter’s life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
Hoops — Walter Dean Myers, 1981
A teenage basketball player from Harlem is befriended by a former professional player who, after being forced to quit because of a point shaving scandal, hopes to prevent other young athletes from repeating his mistake.
Hunger Games — Suzanne Collins, 2008
Set in a dystopian United States wherein society has been divided by class into Districts, this series follows Katniss, a girl from the poorest District, who is forced to compete in a televised fight to the death.
Julie of the Wolves — Jean Craighead George, 1972
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.
Looking for Alaska – John Green, 2005
Sixteen-year-old Miles’ first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl — Jesse Andrews, 2012
The story of Greg and his friend Earl and their choice to befriend Rachel, who is dying of leukemia.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower — Stephen Chbosky, 1999
A series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the coming-of-age trials of a high-schooler named Charlie.
The Prince and the Dressmaker — Jen Wang, 2018
The story of Prince Sebastian and his seamstress, Frances, who secretly makes the prince dresses.
Shade’s Children — Garth Nix, 1997
In a city of the future, nonhuman creatures keep children until the age of fourteen, at which time their brains are harvested.
Sloppy Firsts — Megan McCafferty, 2001
Devastated when her best friend moves away, sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling feels isolated at school and at home, as she struggles to deal with her father’s obsession with her track meets, her boy-crazy peers, and her own nonexistent love life.
Sold — Patricia McCormick, 2006
Follows Lakshmi, a young girl from Nepal who is tricked into being sold into sexual slavery.
Speak — Laurie Halse Anderson, 1999
A traumatic event in the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year of high school.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes — Chris Crutcher, 1993
The daily class discussions about the nature of human-kind, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior’s attempt to answer a friend’s dramatic cry for help.
Thirteen Reasons Why — Jay Asher, 2007
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah’s voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee, 1960
Scout Finch, daughter of the town lawyer, likes to spend her summers building treehouses, swimming, and catching lightning bugs with her big brother Jem. But one summer, when a black man is accused of raping a white woman, Scout’s carefree days come to an end. In the county courtroom, she will join her father in a desperate battle against ignorance and prejudice.
TTYL — Lauren Myracle, 2004
Chronicles, in “instant message” format, the day-to-day experiences, feelings, and plans of three friends, Zoe, Maddie, and Angela, as they begin tenth grade.
Two Boys Kissing – David Levithan, 2013
A chorus of men who died of AIDS observes and yearns to help a cross-section of today’s gay teens who navigate new love, long-term relationships, coming out, self-acceptance, and more in a society that has changed in many ways
Unwind — Neal Shusterman, 2007
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives “unwound” and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to survive until they turn eighteen.
