Unite Against Books Bans has curated a list of banned books and created a “résumé” for each. Book Résumés help teachers, librarians, parents, and community members defend books from censorship. They detail each title’s significance and educational value and are provided in an easy-to-print PDF format for ease of sharing with administrators, book review committees, elected officials, and board members.
Is your local school board trying to remove a book from the school shelves? This searchable page allows you to find if a book already has a résumé made for it, along with a link that goes directly to the appropriate American Library Association page to report censorship attempts and get assistance with how to fight it. Each book résumé contains a synopsis, reviews, awards, accolades, and links to resources and relevant media. These are the types of resources that professionally-trained librarians and educators use when they select books. A book résumé may also include information about how the title has been successfully retained in schools and public libraries where it has been challenged.
Unite Against Book Bans reports that new book résumés and updates to existing book résumés are posted every 4-8 weeks. If you need more help, or a title you are looking for isn’t listed, you can report censorship to receive support from the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom and Unite Against Book Bans. Per the UABB site: “Data on how frequently titles are targeted for censorship will be shared with publishers to help guide the creation of book résumés on a rolling basis. Even if you don’t need support, it is important to report censorship attempts. This information is vital to developing the best resources to protect against book challenges before they happen. All reports are confidential.”
Below you will find the links to UABB’s Book Résumés for any of the “Book of the Day” posts The Knowledge is Power Library has made.
- A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
- All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
- All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Born on the Water: The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Lily & Dunkin by Donna Gephart
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D Jackson
- Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
- The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
- Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, & Ann Hazzard
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
- That Flag by Tameka Fryer Brown
- This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
- This is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkmap
- The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
- The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
- The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- 1984 by George Orwell
