{"id":188,"date":"2019-08-01T16:43:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T16:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/?page_id=188"},"modified":"2025-10-21T18:49:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:49:55","slug":"picture","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/findbks\/addlbibs\/challengedbooks\/picture\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenged Picture Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

S-Collection Home<\/a>\u00a0 > Find Children’s Books <\/a> > Additional Sources<\/a> > Challenged Children’s Books<\/a> > Challenged Picture Books<\/p>\n

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This list contains picture books that have been challenged.\u00a0 It is not a comprehensive list; please refer to sources such as NCTE\u2019s Intellectual Freedom Center<\/a> or ALA\u2019s Banned & Challenged Books<\/a> for more information.\u00a0 The main page of this guide also includes resources for further research.<\/p>\n

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And Tango Makes Three<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, 2005 <\/strong>
\nAt New York City\u2019s Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.<\/p>\n

Crow Boy<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Taro Yashima, 1955 <\/strong>
\nChibi’s classmates come to appreciate his special knowledge and talent.<\/p>\n

Daddy’s Roommate<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Michael Willhoite, 1990 <\/strong>
\nA young boy discusses his divorced father’s new living situation, in which the father and his gay roommate share eating, doing chores, playing, loving, and living.<\/p>\n

Guess What?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Mem Fox, 1990 <\/strong>
\nThrough a series of questions to which the reader must answer yes or no, the personality and occupation of a lady called Daisy O’Grady are revealed.<\/p>\n

Halloween ABC<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Eve Merriam, 1995 <\/strong>
\nA poem for each letter of the alphabet introduces a different, spooky aspect of Halloween.<\/p>\n

Heather Has Two Mommies<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Leslea Newman, 1989 <\/strong>
\nWhen Heather goes to playgroup, at first she feels bad because she has two mothers and no father, but then she learns that there are lots of different kinds of families and the most important thing is that all the people love each other.<\/p>\n

Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine\u00a0 <\/em>—\u00a0 Hannah Moushabeck, 2023<\/strong>
\nAn autobiographical story of a Palestinian family from the perspective of a young girl, who has never visited her father\u2019s homeland.<\/p>\n

I Am Jazz\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>—\u00a0 <\/strong>Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, 2014
\n<\/strong>From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn’t feel like herself in boys’ clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way.<\/p>\n

In Our Mothers\u2019 House<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0— Patricia Polacco, 2009<\/strong>
\nThree young children experience the joys and challenges of being raised by two mothers.<\/p>\n

In the Night Kitchen<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Maurice Sendak, 1970 <\/strong>
\nA little boy’s dream-fantasy in which he helps three fat bakers get milk for their cake batter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a Book <\/em>—\u00a0Lane Smith, 2010<\/strong>
\nA mouse, a donkey, and a monkey argue about what\u2019s more fun: Books or computers.<\/p>\n

Juli\u00e1n is a Mermaid <\/em>—\u00a0Jessica Love, 2018<\/strong>
\nAfter seeing a parade full of beautiful women dressed as mermaids, Juli\u00e1n sets out to create his own mermaid costume to join in the fun.<\/p>\n

King & King<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Linda de Haan & Stern Nijland, 2000<\/strong>
\nWhen the queen insists that the prince get married and take over as king, the search for a suitable mate does not turn out as expected.<\/p>\n

The Librarian of Basra<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0—\u00a0 Jeanette Winter, 2005<\/strong>
\nThe true story of librarian Alia Baker, who snuck thousands books out of her library and into her home to protect them from US-led bombing campaigns in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Little Black Sambo<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Helen Bannerman, 1899 <\/strong>
\nA little boy in India loses his fine new clothes to the tigers, but while they dispute who is the grandest tiger in the jungle he takes his fine clothes back again.<\/p>\n

Mommy Laid an Egg<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Babette Cole, 1990 <\/strong>
\nTwo children explain to their parents, using their own drawings, where babies come from.<\/p>\n

My Mom\u2019s Having a Baby!<\/em>\u00a0 —\u00a0 Dori Hillestad Butler, 2005<\/strong>
\nElizabeth\u2019s mom is pregnant and she is full of questions. Luckily, she knows just how to explain everything to Elizabeth, from the baby\u2019s development to birth.<\/p>\n

My Shadow is Purple <\/em>—\u00a0Scott Stuart, 2022<\/strong>
\nA child describes their purple shadow \u2013 different from their mom\u2019s pink one and their dad\u2019s blue one \u2013 in an allegory about gender identity.<\/p>\n

Prince & Knight <\/em>—\u00a0Daniel Haack, 2018<\/strong>
\nA prince and a knight defeat a dragon together and find true love in the process.<\/p>\n

Skippyjon Jones series<\/em> \u00a0— Judy Schachner, 2003-2014<\/strong>
\nSkippyjon Jones is a Siamese kitty boy who things he\u2019s a Chihauhua. He may have big ears, but he has an even bigger sense of adventure. (challenged for depicting stereotoypes of Mexican culture).<\/p>\n

Something Happened in Our Town\u00a0 — <\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Marrian Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, 2018<\/strong>
\nFollows a Black family and a white family as they navigate conversations about race and policing after the murder of an unarmed Black man by the police in their community.<\/p>\n

The Stupids<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0H. Allard & J. Marshall, 1974-1989 <\/strong>
\nThe Stupids are a nice, typical, suburban American family except for one thing. None of them has the sense God gave a lemon. When Stanley Stupid discovers that someone has swiped the Stupid family garbage right off their curb, he decides to take matters into his own bumbling hands and catch the evil litter looter himself.<\/p>\n

This Day in June<\/em> — Gayle E. Pittman, 2014<\/strong>
\nA picture book illustrating a Pride parade. The end matter serves as a primer on LGBT history and culture and explains the references made in the story.<\/p>\n

When Aiden Became a Brother<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 —<\/strong>\u00a0 Kyle Lukoff, 2019<\/strong>
\nAiden has complicated emotions when he learns his mother is pregnant with a new baby, particularly when he begins to wonder whether or not he will be a good big brother.<\/p>\n

Where the Wild Things Are<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Maurice Sendak, 1963 <\/strong>
\nA naughty little boy, sent to bed without his supper, sails to the land of the wild things where he becomes their king.<\/p>\n

Where’s Waldo<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0— \u00a0Martin Hanford, 1987 <\/strong>
\nThe reader follows Waldo as he hikes around the world and must try to find him in the illustrations of some of the crowded places he visits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S-Collection Home\u00a0 > Find Children’s Books > Additional Sources > Challenged Children’s Books > Challenged Picture Books This list contains picture books that have been challenged.\u00a0 It is not a comprehensive list; please refer to sources such as NCTE\u2019s Intellectual Freedom Center or ALA\u2019s Banned & Challenged Books for more information.\u00a0 The main page of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"parent":82,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-188","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":923,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions\/923"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/s-collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}