This June (and beyond), Queens Public Library is taking a stand against censorship and the growing national trend of book bans.
The American Library Association recently announced that it tracked an “unprecedented” number of challenges to library, school, and university materials in 2021. The books being challenged often focus on race, LGBTQ+ issues, religion, and history.
Here’s how QPL is joining the fight against censorship and book banning.
NYC Banned Books Challenge
QPL is partnering with Brooklyn Public Library and the New York Public Library for the NYC Banned Books Challenge!
Our expert librarians have created a list of 10 banned and challenged books that we recommend all New Yorkers borrow and read.
To get New York started, we’re making the digital version of one of the books from the NYC Banned Books Challenge—National Book Award winner Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo—available with no waits through June 30!
Additional physical copies of Last Night at the Telegraph Club will also be available systemwide.
Here are the 10 titles featured in the NYC Banned Books Challenge:
- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
- Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
- Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings
- All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi & Jason Reynolds
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez
- This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki
Pride Month: LGBTQ+ Banned Books
The pressure to ban books featuring LGBTQ+ themes and content has increased nationwide, and QPL is standing by our commitment to promote queer liberation and representation across our borough and beyond.
In addition to the NYC Banned Books Challenge, and in honor of Pride Month, Queens Public Library will make a list of LGBTQ+ challenged and banned books, featuring titles for readers of various ages, “always available” in their digital versions throughout the month of June.
Those books are:
- Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
- Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens by Kathy Belge & Marke Bieschke
- This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
- Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
- I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
- 10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac
- Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride
- In the Role of Brie Hutchens... by Nicole Melleby
- The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus
- Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager
We hope that you will enjoy the books on both these lists, and remember: one of the best ways to fight book banning is to read banned books! Will you join us?