BANNED BOOKS

The books on this list all have in common the fact that they were targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools, to which we at West Side Books say: Nice try!

Read more about banned books and the American Library Association's efforts to support "the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular" through events like Banned Books Week (held annually in late September) at this link: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks


 

Gender Queer: A Memoir By Maia Kobabe Cover Image
$24.99
ISBN: 9781549304002
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Oni Press - May 28th, 2019

2020 ALA Alex Award Winner
2020 Stonewall — Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here.


A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) By Sarah J. Maas Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9781635575576
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing - June 2nd, 2020

The seductive and stunning #1 New York Times bestselling sequel to Sarah J. Maas's spellbinding A Court of Thorns and Roses.


Salvage the Bones: A Novel By Jesmyn Ward Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781608196265
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Bloomsbury USA - April 24th, 2012

Winner of the National Book Award
An Atlantic Great American Novel of the Last 100 Years

"A taut, wily novel, smartly plotted and voluptuously written . . . Jesmyn Ward makes beautiful music, plays deftly with her reader’s expectations." —Parul Sehgal, New York Times


Milk and Honey By Rupi Kaur Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781449496364
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Andrews McMeel Publishing - August 28th, 2018

Watch rupi kaur live now on Prime Video.

“Rupi Kaur is the Writer of the Decade.” – The New Republic


A hardcover gift edition of milk and honey, the #1 New York Times bestselling poetry and prose collection by rupi kaur, which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. milk and honey is a collection


Lawn Boy By Jonathan Evison Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781616209230
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Algonquin Books - March 19th, 2019

One of the American Library Association's Top 10 Most Banned Books for the past two years, this award-winning coming-of-age novel takes readers into the heart and humor of a young man determined to achieve the ever-changing American dream.


All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto By George M. Johnson Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780374312718
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) - April 28th, 2020

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.

A New York Times Bestseller!
Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Today Show, and MSNBC feature stories


This Book Is Gay By Juno Dawson, David Levithan (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Juno Dawson, David Levithan (Introduction by)
$12.99
ISBN: 9781728254326
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Sourcebooks Fire - September 7th, 2021

The bestselling young adult non-fiction book on sexuality and gender!

Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Intersex. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who's ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU.


The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel By Margaret Atwood Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780385490818
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Anchor - March 16th, 1998

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (The New York Times). Now an award-winning Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss.


Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning By Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316453691
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - March 10th, 2020

This crucial, empowering, #1 New York Times bestselling exploration of racism—and antiracism—in America makes critical ideas accessible for teen readers, adapted from Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning.

This is NOT a history book.This is a book about the here and now.


King and the Dragonflies (Scholastic Gold) By Kacen Callender Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781338129335
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Scholastic Press - February 4th, 2020

A 2021 Coretta Scott King Honor Book!

Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature!

Winner of the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry!

In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, one boy's grief takes him beyond the bayous of his backyard, to learn that there is no right way to be yourself.


Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice By Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, Ann Hazzard Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781433828546
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Magination Press - March 1st, 2018

A Minneapolis Children's Theatre Company Original World Premiere Production
A NEW YORK TIMES and #1 INDIEBOUND BEST SELLER
American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom's Top 10 Most Challenged Books
A Little Free Library Action Book Club Selection
National Parenting Product Award Winner (NAPPA)


Last Night at the Telegraph Club By Malinda Lo Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780525555254
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Dutton Books for Young Readers - January 19th, 2021

Winner of the National Book Award
A New York Times Bestseller

"The queer romance we’ve been waiting for.”—Ms. Magazine


Between the World and Me By Ta-Nehisi Coates Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780812993547
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: One World - July 14th, 2015

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT


Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice By Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, Ann Hazzard Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781433828546
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Magination Press - March 1st, 2018

A Minneapolis Children's Theatre Company Original World Premiere Production
A NEW YORK TIMES and #1 INDIEBOUND BEST SELLER
American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom's Top 10 Most Challenged Books
A Little Free Library Action Book Club Selection
National Parenting Product Award Winner (NAPPA)


Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Pantheon Graphic Library) By Art Spiegelman Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780394747231
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Pantheon - August 12th, 1986

The bestselling first installment of the graphic novel acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker) • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • One of Variety’s “Banned and Challenged Books Everyone Should Read&rdqu


Brave New World By Aldous Huxley Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780060850524
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Perennial Modern Classics - October 17th, 2006

Now more than ever: Aldous Huxley's enduring masterwork must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit

"A masterpiece. . . . One of the most prophetic dystopian works." —Wall Street Journal 


Beloved: Pulitzer Prize Winner (Vintage International) By Toni Morrison Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781400033416
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - June 8th, 2004

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A spellbinding novel that transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. With a new afterword by the author. 


Sex Is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings, and YOU By Cory Silverberg, Fiona Smyth (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Cory Silverberg, Fiona Smyth (Illustrator)
$25.95
ISBN: 9781609806064
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Triangle Square - July 28th, 2015

2016 Winner of the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction 

2016 ALA Stonewall Book Award, Honor Book

2016 ALA Notable Children's Book


How to Be an Antiracist By Ibram X. Kendi Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780525509288
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: One World - August 13th, 2019

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society—and in ourselves.


This One Summer By Jillian Tamaki (Illustrator), Mariko Tamaki Cover Image
By Jillian Tamaki (Illustrator), Mariko Tamaki
$18.99
ISBN: 9781596437746
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: First Second - May 6th, 2014

A New York Times bestseller
A 2015 Caldecott Honor Book
A 2015 Michael L. Printz Honor Book
An Eisner Award Winner