At Penguin Random House, we believe in the right to freedom of expression and protecting writers against censorship. Reading is indispensable in having an informed, engaged democracy, and the dramatic rise in efforts to ban books in public schools and libraries—many of them by BIPOC or LGBTQ voices—threatens the advancement of our society and culture.
Giving Back
We are committed to advocating for our authors and supporting equitable access to books through ongoing partnerships with and donations to a wide range of associations and nonprofit organizations dedicated to protecting free expression and the right to read.
We recently expanded our partnership with PEN America, an organization that champions the freedom to write and protects free expression, with a one-time gift of $100,000 to safeguard free speech and banned books. We will also increase our financial support of these issues over the next five years.
Additional partner organizations include:
Together with School Library Journal, we partnered with PEN America, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, FReadom, and Library Journal to create a poster that emphasizes the importance of free expression as book bans and challenges spread across the country. To learn more and download the poster, click here.
Events:
Banned Books: When Books Are Threatened, Where Do We Turn?
Facing threats of censorship and losing diverse perspectives, parents, teachers, and librarians are all asking the question “When books are threatened, where do we turn”? We hosted an evening of programming in partnership with PEN America dedicated to examining this pressing question. On the multi-faceted issue, we heard from concerned citizens navigating pathways of access and resistance on the ground, as well as authors who have faced some of the harshest calls for banning. Additionally, a representative from PEN America spoke about how we can support our targeted communities. The event culminated in a discussion with Ibram X. Kendi (How To Be An Antiracist), Nikole Hannah-Jones (The 1619 Project), and Nic Stone (Dear Martin), moderated by Dr. Emily Knox, associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne School of Information Sciences.
Resources
Are you a librarian, educator, parent, or creator being affected by book bans, or a concerned citizen looking to learn more and take action? Here are some resources that might help.
Resources for Educators
Resources for Librarians
Resources for Parents
Resources for Students
Resources for Authors and Illustrators
Penguin Random House Banned Titles
Here are some Penguin Random House titles frequently challenged and banned*, but it is in no way exhaustive. If you have experienced bans on a book that is not included here, please click here to contact us. The Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the top challenged books across publishers, which can be found here.
1984 by George Orwell
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippen by Jen Bryant
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A Time to Kill by John Grisham
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
All Are Welcome by Alexa Penfold
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
Bless Me, Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Boy Erased by Garrard Conley
City of Thieves By David Benioff
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Donovan’s Big Day by Leslea Newman
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
Fences by August Wilson
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text By Mary Shelley
Fresh Ink (Catch, Pull, Drive) edited by Lamar Giles
Girl Crushed by Katie Heaney
Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
Hooked by Catherine Greenman
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Grendel by John Gardner
Growing Up: It’s a Girl Thing by Mavis Jukes
I Am Jazz By Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings Illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Jack by A.M. Homes
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Last Night at the Telegraph Club By Malinda Lo
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Life is Funny by E.R. Frank
Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Looking for Alaska Deluxe Edition by John Green
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Mastiff by Tamora Pierce
Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale By Art Spiegelman
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
My Awful/Awesome Popularity Plan by Seth Rudetsky
Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Norwegian Wood (Movie Tie-in Edition) by Haruki Murakami
Obie Is Man Enough by Schuyler Bailar
Odd One Out by Nic Stone
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
Rage: A Love Story by Julie Ann Peters
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Siddhartha By Hermann Hesse
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence and D.H. Lawrence
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Center of the World by Andreas Steinhofel
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple By Alice Walker
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
The Freedom Writers Diary (20th Anniversary Edition) by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Guy Book: An Owner’s Manual for Teens by Mavis Jukes
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid’s Tale (Graphic Novel) A NOVEL By Margaret Atwood Illustrated by Renee Nault
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Incendiaries By R. O. Kwon
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton Introduction by Jodi Picoult
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Testaments By Margaret Atwood
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The World According to Garp by John Irving
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Thirteen Reasons Why 10th Anniversary Edition by Jay Asher
This is My America by Kim Johnson
This is Your Time by Ruby Bridges
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
Twelfth Night By William Shakespeare
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus
Ulysses by James Joyce
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices Edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson
White Bird by R. J. Palacio
Wide Awake by David Levithan
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
You Hear Me edited by Betty Franco
*A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. (American Library Association)
