Freedom to Read

In this autobiographical comic memoir, author Maia Kobabe reflects on their own journey of understanding gender and sexuality. Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images.

Beyond Magenta was the second-most banned book of the year in 2019 due to its LGBTQIA+ content, “its effect on any young people who would read it,” and concerns it was biased. It was challenged in BC due to a concern that it condoned pedophilia since there was a depiction of minors having sex without the book stating that “sex with children is not okay.” The book was retained.

Mike Munoz, landscaper extraordinaire, dreams the All American Dream, but has very few opportunities in front of him that will help him achieve great riches and privilege. Filled with humour and insight, readers root for Mike as he tries to find his happiness and place in the world. Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.

Written in a series of personal essays, journalist George M. Johnson recounts his childhood, adolescence and college years as he goes through the hardships and triumphs he faced as a Black queer boy. Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.

Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia. Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women.

In this coming-of-age story, budding cartoonist Junior leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school. Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references and use of a derogatory term.

This novel tells the story of a real event set in Texas in 1937, where a broken gas line caused the explosion of a white school. The story follows Naomi and Henry who have to deal with racism, marginalization and poverty, and demonstrates the racial divide of the 1930s in Texas. Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.

1991 – A Black Canadian organization called PRUDE (Pride of Race, Unity and Dignity through Education) in Saint John, N.B. tried to have To Kill A Mockingbird removed from school reading lists citing its portrayal of racial minorities. It was eventually removed from the learning resources list. It has been challenged several other times in Canada.

1994 – A member of Alberta’s legislature called for the removal of Of Mice and Men from Alberta’s schools with a petition signed by 811 Albertans who wanted schools to withdraw books that “demean or profane the name of God and Jesus Christ.”
2000 – A member of the Reform party asked that this book should be removed from schools in Winnipeg’s River East School Division, due to Steinbeck’s use of “God”, “God-damned”, and “Jesus” as profane and blasphemous language. The school division took no action.

In The Bluest Eye, Pulitzer prizewinner Toni Morrison tells the story of a black girl growing up in the 1940s. Widely taught in schools, it is frequently on the American Library Association’s lists of most challenged books, and was the tenth most-challenged book of the past decade. An unflinching look at the pain and damage caused by bigotry, the book has been “banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuse.”

2008 – In Toronto, a parent formally complained that this novel’s “profane language”, anti-Christian overtones, “violence” and “sexual degradation” probably violated the district school policies that require students to show respect and tolerance to one another. In 2009, a review panel of the Toronto District School Board recommended that the schools keep the novel in the curriculum in grades 11 and 12.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas was challenged for profanity and promoting an anti-police message. In 2018, the book was challenged by the Fraternal Order of Police in Charleston, South Carolina, where they stated that the book is “almost an indoctrination of distrust of police and we’ve got to put a stop to that.”