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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
Description from Amazon: The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population.
The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid’s Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.
“Atwood takes many trends which exist today and stretches them to their logical and chilling conclusions . . . An excellent novel about the directions our lives are taking . . . Read it while it’s still allowed.” –Houston Chronicle
The novel’s themes of oppression and control mirror the censorship it warns against:
- Mature Themes: sexual violence, rape, mature subject matter
- Religious and Political Content: Some say the novel is anti-Christian since it portrays a totalitarian theocracy that draws heavily from the Bible. Contains controversial themes on feminism, religious extremism, and politics.
- Profanity
- Content is disturbing: oppression, systemic control, and loss of agency
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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
Description from Amazon: Voted America’s Best-Loved Novel in PBS’s The Great American Read
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred
One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.
Initially criticized for its content, it has been more recently challenged for its portrayal of racism and concerns that it is “outdated and harmful” to students.
- Racial slurs and language
- Themes of rape and violence
- Depiction of racism as harmful and challenged the “white savior” narrative
- And some are concerned that the book could make some students uncomfortable by confronting complex themes and language
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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
Description on Amazon: First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize–winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into haves and have-nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes the very nature of equality and justice in America. As Don DeLillo has claimed, Steinbeck “shaped a geography of conscience” with this novel, where “there is something at stake in every sentence.” Beyond that—for emotional urgency, evocative power, sustained impact, prophetic reach, and continued controversy—The Grapes of Wrath is perhaps the most American of American classics.
Banned due to:
- Often labeled as communist propaganda due to anti-capitalist and pro-union message.
- Banned in parts of California (Kern County) due to what has been challenged as an unfair, negative picture of the region and treatment of migrant workers.
- Depicts the corruption of officials
- Profanity
- Sexual content
- References to witchcraft and atheism within the text.
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, also available as an Audiobook on Audible
Description on Amazon: The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
NOT PERMANENTLY BANNED although challenged and removed in some school districts due to:
- Mature and Explicit Content
- LGBTQIA+ themes
- Parental Objections claim the book presents poor role models and is inappropriate for teenages
- Legal Challenges: Having faced frequent challenges, removal from school curricula is often temporary, and the book is most often reinstated after the review process.