Books Banned in California

9 banned books

BANNED 88 challenges

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about racial injustice in the American South, challenged for its use of racial...

Racial ContentProfanityAge Inappropriateness
BANNED 75 challenges

The Catcher in the Rye

by J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger's classic novel about teenage alienation, the most censored book in American high schools from 1961 to 198...

ProfanitySexual ContentAnti-Family Content
BANNED 64 challenges

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal-winning dystopian novel about a society that has eliminated pain, color, and choice, challeng...

ViolenceSexual ContentAge Inappropriateness
BANNED 56 challenges

The Chocolate War

by Robert Cormier

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a YA novel about a student who refuses to participate in his school's chocolate f...

Sexual ContentProfanityViolence
BANNED 52 challenges

Of Mice and Men

by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck's Depression-era novella about two migrant workers, challenged for profanity, racial slurs, and its portr...

ProfanityRacial ContentViolence
BANNED 45 challenges

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is a controversial literary masterpiece about an unreliable narrator's obsession with a young...

Sexual ContentAge Inappropriateness
BANNED 39 challenges

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou's memoir of growing up Black in the Jim Crow South, challenged for its depiction of childhood sexual assaul...

Sexual ContentRacial ContentProfanity
BANNED 35 challenges

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck follows the Joad family's migration from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bo...

ProfanitySexual ContentPolitical Content
BANNED 28 challenges

Gone with the Wind

by Margaret Mitchell

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is a sweeping Civil War-era novel challenged for racial slurs, romanticized slav...

Racial ContentSexual ContentProfanity