Banned Books Week 2021 - Top 10 of 2020

George by Alex Gino BE WHO YOU ARE. When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part...because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte—but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all. #1 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community”. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: children's chapter book, children's CD audiobook
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook
• Digital copy from Hoopla: audiobook

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas—and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives. #2 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: teen nonfiction
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook, kid-friendly ebook

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely A bag of chips. That's all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad's pleadings that he's stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad's resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad's every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement? There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad's classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad's best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before. Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this four-starred reviewed tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken directly from today's headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth. #3 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now”. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: teen fiction
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson The first ten lies they tell you in high school. "Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself. #4 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: teen fiction
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. #5 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: teen fiction, large print, CD audiobook
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook, audiobook (10th anniversary edition)

Something Happened In Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin After discussing the police shooting of a local Black man with their families, Emma and Josh know how to treat a new student who looks and speaks differently than his classmates. Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers that provides general guidance about addressing racism with children, child-friendly vocabulary definitions, conversation guides, and a link to additional online resources for parents and teachers. #6 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police views. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: children's storybook
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: audiobook
• Digital copy from Hoopla: audiobook

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 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 best-loved 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. #7 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experience. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: adult fiction, adult fiction (50th anniversary edition), teen fiction, large print, CD audiobook, movie
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook
• Digital copy from Hoopla: ebook, audiobook

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck An unlikely pair, George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California during the Great Depression, grasp for their American Dream. They hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations, nor predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him. Of Mice and Men represents an experiment in form, which Steinbeck described as "a kind of playable novel, written in a novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands." A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films. This edition features an introduction by Susan Shillinglaw, one of today's leading Steinbeck scholars. #8 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: teen fiction (second copy), CD audiobook, movie
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook
• Digital copy from Hoopla: movie

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment. #9 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuse. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: adult fiction
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does-or does not-say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. #10 Most Challenged Book of 2020: Challenged for profanity, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message. Check it out:

• Physical copy from RPL: teen fiction, movie
• Digital copy from Libby/Overdrive: ebook, audiobook
• Digital copy from Hoopla: ebook, audiobook, original movie score, soundtrack, soundtrack (PA)