Northland Public Library | Teens

Classic Banned Books

These books, which are all on Radcliffe Publishing Course's Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, have all been banned or challenged books. Of the 100 Top Novels, at least 42 of the titles on the list have been targeted for removal from library collections. For more booklists of banned books and information about the history of book censorship and book burning, see Challenged and Banned Books. Here are a few of the YA librarian's favorite banned classics:

*Click on the title to look up a book in our catalog!

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
This 1932 classic foretells virtual reality entertainment, test tube babies, and censorship. Engaging aborigine, John Savage, throws modern civilization into a tizzy while wisely quoting Shakespeare.
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
Heller's combat experiences prompted this satire of military life. Regulation "Catch-22" (a phrase Heller coined) prevents airmen from escaping service in bombing missions by pleading insanity. Any airman rational enough to want to be grounded cannot possibly be insane and therefore is fit to fly.
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
The injustices of poverty and the sufferings of migrant workers during the dustbowl won Steinbeck a Pulizer in this insightful story of a family's struggle for dignity.
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Teens struggle to survive on a deserted island in Golding's first novel which introduces one of the recurrent themes of his fiction--the conflict between humanity's innate barbarism and the civilizing influence of reason.