These books, featured in NEA’s Read Across America program and recommended by a committee of educators, were included in PEN America’s analysis of titles challenged and banned in school and classroom libraries from 2021-2023.
To find these titles in a local public library near you, view our companion list on WorldCat.
Elementary
Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford and R. Gregory Christie
Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard
Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
Ho’onani Hula Warrior by Heather Gale
Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
Leila in Saffron by Rukhsanna Guidroz
Lubna and Pebble by Wendy Meddour
Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai
My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera
Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales
Stella Díaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell
Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
Middle Grade
Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham & Charles Waters
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas
When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
Young Adult
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese
Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Pénélope Bagieu
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan
The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg
One Person, No Vote (YA edition): How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally by Carol Anderson with Tonya Bolden
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott
Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You by Jason Reynolds
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott
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