Banned & Challenged Books

Created by Stacy Kitsis. Last updated: January 13, 2023. 

Source: American Library Association

This page features resources to help you start thinking about book challenges, book bans, intellectual freedom, and censorship. 

Defining Key Terms

Source: Challenge Support (American Library Association)

Locating Books 

In addition to the books we've pulled for your class, here are some other ways you can find books: 

Learn More: Books & E-Books

Check our library catalog for actual challenged and/or banned books, as well as works on the author and other related works.

These are a few great surveys of banned book cases:

Learn More: Online Resources

Of course, you can find information on recent book challenges and bans through searching the open web. Here's one article: Banning Books Like 'Maus' Is Part of Sanitizing History (Teen Vogue, February 2022). These library databases also offer great information: 

Opposing Viewpoints in Context (Gale)

New York Times (Gale)

Boston Globe (ProQuest)

General OneFile (Gale)

Search Tips

Some tips for searching, whether you’re in Google or a library database.

Use quotation marks to find complete phrases, especially proper names and titles. For example:

Combine keywords to get articles that match each of your important concepts. For example:

By adding the “AND” you are limiting your results to sources that include both of the terms. You can even get fancy with Boolean logic. For example: 

Target your Google search to specific domains by doing entering your search term followed by "site:[domain]". For example:

Play around. Both ala.org and ila.org are great for this assignment.

Check your spelling when you are searching. Sometimes a misspelled word prevents you from finding all of the resources you can!

Book Challenges in Arlington Public Schools

These School Committee policies address selection and reconsideration for Arlington Public Schools, in case you were curious!