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Kids' Books on Censorship & Book Banning

Dive into this fantastic list of kids’ books that shine a light on censorship, its impact, and what we can do about it. This list includes picture books for early grades as well as middle grade novels.

User from Red Deer Public Library

16 items

  • Book Comes Home

    a Banned Book's Journey

    Sanders, Rob, 1958-
    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.
    Book, 2025New York : Random House, [2025] — E SANDE
  • The reader is continuously urged by the book's character, Wizz, not to open it or turn the page, with Wizz employing increasingly humorous and absurd tactics to prevent the reader from reaching the end. It has everything a young reader will enjoy…
    Book, 2020New York : Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2020. — E LEE
  • 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…
    Book, 2024New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024. — E FERRY
  • 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…
    Book, 2023Thomaston, ME : Tilbury House Publishers, [2023] — E KHALI
  • 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…
    Book, 2023Naperville, IL : Sourcebooks eXplore, an imprint of Sourcebooks Kids, [2023] — E HALDA
  • 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.
    Book, 2022New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2022] — F LEVIT J
  • 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…
    Book, 2017New York : Starscape, 2017. — J PB GRATZ
  • 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…
    Book, 2023New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2023] — F YANG J
  • Set in the Italian Renaissance, two girls from very different walks of life join forces to fight censorship and protect the people they love.
    Book, 2023New York : Greenwillow Books, [2023] — J GRAPHIC NIJKA
  • 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.
    Book, 2016New York : Random House, [2016] — F GRABE J
  • A ripped from the headlines middle grade novel about a group of students who must fight book banning at their school to save their club ... and their world as they know it.
    Book, 2024New York : Delacorte Press, [2024] — F LEVY J
  • 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.
    Book, 2018New York, New York : Random House, [2018] — F VARNE J
  • 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.…
    Book, 2020New York, NY : Imprint, 2020. — J PB ALEXA
  • 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…
    Book, 2019New York : Scholastic Press, 2019. — F NIELS J
  • Every day in schools across the country books are challenged for telling stories, centering characters, and tackling topics that feel uncomfortable for some people. This book explains what book banning is and helps to start a conversation about how…
    Book, 2025New York : DK Publishing, 2025. — 098.1 NATIO J
  • Sixth-grader Bess Stein brings together friends and a group of rockstar librarians called the Book Warriors to fight a book ban happening at her middle school.
    Book, 2025New York : Delacorte Press, [2025] — F SWART J