Banned Library

THE HILL WE CLIMB by Amanda Gorman. (New York: Penguin, 2021) Introduction by Oprah Winfrey.

Banned because one woman in Florida mistakenly believed that Oprah was the author and that the poem might contain racist material.

THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini (New York: Riverhead, 2003).

The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet invasion, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.

source [wikipedia]

A RAISIN IN THE SUN by Lorraine Hansberry. (New York: Random House, 1959)

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of the father, and deals with matters of housing discrimination, racism, and assimilation. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959, and in recent years publications such as The Independent and Time Out have listed it among the best plays ever written.

source [book]

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehesi Coates (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)

Between the World and Me is a 2015 nonfiction book written by American author Ta-Nehisi Coates and published by Spiegel & Grau. It is written as a letter to the author's teenage son about the feelings, symbolism, and realities associated with being Black in the United States. Coates recapitulates American history and explains to his son the "racist violence that has been woven into American culture." Coates draws from an abridged, autobiographical account of his youth in Baltimore, detailing the ways in which institutions like the school, the police, and even "the streets" discipline, endanger, and threaten to disembody black men and women. The work takes structural and thematic inspiration from James Baldwin's 1963 epistolary book The Fire Next Time. Unlike Baldwin, Coates sees white supremacy as an indestructible force, one that Black Americans will never evade or erase, but will always struggle against.

The book won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.

“Educators” in Florida and Texas don’t want you to read this book. [my quotes]

MORE SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK by Alvin Schwartz (New York: Harper Collins, 1984). Illustrated by Stephen Gammell.