Since 1982, the American Library Association has been celebrating our freedom to read with its annual Banned Books Week. This year’s theme? Diversity. While “diversity” is seldom given as a reason for a challenge, a disproportionate amount of challenged works are those that feature diverse characters or subject matter that addresses prejudice, such as (but not limited to) LGBTQIA topics, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.
This week, let’s acknowledge our right to hear any and every story by celebrating these frequently challenged works. Below are some of the most highly rated of these books on Audible (see the entire collection here).
Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. Named one of the 25 Most Influential Teens of the Year by Time, Jennings shares her very public transgender journey as she inspires people to accept the differences in others while they embrace their own truths.
Reasons cited when it was challenged: inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group
The picture book And Tango Makes Three by authors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell tells the true story of three Chinstrap penguins — Roy, Silo, and their adopted daughter, Tango. A Central Park Zookeeper observed that they had a pair of male penguins, Roy and Silo, who liked to do everything together. They built a nest together like the other mating penguins, but could not lay an egg. So one day, the Zookeeper bought the pair an extra egg that needed to be cared for, produced by another penguin couple. Roy and Silo took turns sitting on it to keep it warm until it hatched.
Reasons cited when it was challenged: inaccurate, homosexuality, religious viewpoint
Two-time BAFTA winner Mark Haddon brings listeners the moving, honest, and endearing story of a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome on a mission to unlock a mystery that threatens to upend his largely logical life. Paired with the soothing British narration of Jeff Woodman, this is a novel listeners of all ages will enjoy.
This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation. Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered “Kaffir” from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do -- he escaped to tell about it.
Reasons cited when it was challenged: violence, prostitution
Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.
Reasons cited when it was challenged: violence, profanity, sexually graphic
Unnerving, how this classic seems especially relevant today — also incredibly significant because Audible’s founder, Don Katz, was mentored and inspired by Mr. Ellison:
“What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?”
From the most banned author in the United States known mainly for her debut novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local community. At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age — and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime.
Reasons cited when it was challenged: drugs, profanity, sexually explicit
