Blog Posts by Subject: Banned Books

125 ​Books We Love for Teens: A YA Librarian’s Tales of Censorship, Meeting Authors, Working with Teens and Falling in Love with Books

One librarian's stories of the books, teens and authors who have impacted her life and career.

Our Favorite Banned and Challenged Books for Teens

At our last Teen Advisory Group meeting, our members looked over lists of frequently banned books, and picked titles they highly recommend.

A Banned Book in the Spencer Collection

Banned Books Week 2017 is this week (September 24th–30th). With that in mind, I would like to introduce a beautiful book, once banned, now residing in the Library’s Spencer Collection. It is a work of no particular bibliographical significance: an isolated volume (volume 2, the correspondence) from a ten-volume set of the works of St. Augustine.

Vice Wars: Researching New York City's Scandalous Censorship Past

On April 29, 1947 a man entered the office of the Random House publishing company in mid-town Manhattan. He told the receptionist that he would like to purchase a book of poetry. The following day, a small raiding party of police detectives entered the Random House office, thrusting a summons and a search warrant in the receptionist's face...

Schomburg Center Research Guide: Dr. Maya Angelou

In honor of National Poetry Month, and what would have been her 89th birthday, we celebrate the life and work of, Dr. Maya Angelou, with this Research Guide. Here, you will find an overview of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s holdings related to the work and life of this notable poet, writer, journalist, actress, and dancer.

The Banned Books We Love

Eleven of our favorite challenged titles.

Banned Books Don't Work

The following Department of Labor blog, Banned Books Don't Work, is authored by Carl Fillichio who heads the Labor Department's Office of Public Affairs. Carl would like readers to share their thoughts on books, poems or plays (banned or not banned) that shaped their view of work, workers or workplaces.

400 Years of Banned Books

Banned Books Week is when libraries and other members of the book community support the freedom to read and raise awareness of challenges to this freedom. Sadly, the banning of books is not a new phenomenon—while Catcher in the Rye or Huckleberry Finn come to mind, you can find books banned as early as the sixteenth century in the Rare Book Division.

Banned Books Week 2014: Celebrating the Freedom to Read

Programs for families during Banned Books Week.

Booktalking "The Read-Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease

Reading brings pleasure to people, and we need to nurture kids' reading interests, regardless of whether or not the kids' preferences mirror our own. If reading always seems like a chore, and if kids are constantly drilled on reading what they are not interested in, they will avoid the printed word like the plague.

Parents, teachers, and librarians reading to kids about books that they are enthusiastic about can nurture the development of bibliophiles. Even reading series books has been shown to increase people's vocabularies, etc. People learn vocabulary by reading 

Banned Books Week: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, a candid, semi-autobiographical novel about coming to terms with a lesbian identity, brought to the forefront the question of whether or not the frank portrayal of lesbianism in a book was grounds for charges of obscenity. First published July 1928 in England by Jonathan Cape, The Well was soon seized and criminalized for violating the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, which stated "The 

Banned Books Week: Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

Likely one of the most frequently censored books in the history of American literature, Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller is a lascivious romp involving Miller's expatriate exploits among the world of writers and artists in early 1930s Paris. The book was first published in Paris in 1934 by Obelisk Press, publishers of books that were considered controversial in England and the US, such as Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness. Prior to 1961, Tropic of Cancer was distributed in the US only by those 

Banned Books Week: And Tango Makes Three

Greetings, and welcome to Banned Books Week! For each day of Banned Books Week, this blog will be highlighting a famous banned or challenged book. The campaign to highlght milestones in the history of banned and challenged books and promote intellectual freedom was spearheaded by library activist Judith Krug. She once said "You should have access to ideas and information regardless of your age. If anyone is going to limit or guide a young person, it should be the parent or guardian—and 

Fight for Your Right to Read: Banned Books Week 2013

From 2000 to 2009, 8 out of the top 10 books on "The Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books" were specifically written for teens or children. In fact out of that list of 100, 67 were books for teens or children. Titles such as the Harry Potter series (#1), the Alice series (#2), The 

Banned Books Week: A Book List

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. The celebration is typically held during the last week of September, and it is meant to draw national attention to the harms of censorship. Even though books continue to be banned, part of the celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, many of the books have remained available.

Challenged Books vs. Banned 

Researching Sex, Sexuality and Sexology

Sexology, the interdisciplinary scientific study of sex has been an integral component to the study of humanity. If you are currently researching any topics relating to the areas of sexology, sexuality or sex, consider visiting The New York Public Library's research collections! Whether you find sexology to be deeply fascinating or 

Get Ready to Save Apathea in ... AMERICUS!

I followed a link the other day to the First Second Books website, one of my favorite publishers of graphic novels. I'm already a huge fan of Vampire Loves, the Color of Earth trilogy, Robot Dreams, American Born Chinese, Brain Camp, and

On Display: Banned Books Week

Do you remember the first time you read a book that made you really think about issues that perhaps were not often heard? Maybe it became your favorite book!

We are lucky to live in a country where we are able to read anything we want, thanks to the 1st amendment of the Constitution.

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  It is held during the last week of September. The 2010 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held