Celebrate Your Right to Read During Banned Books Week!

Underlined is committed to standing against censorship. This week, we’re highlighting some recently banned and challenged YA books in honor of Banned Books Week.

For more resources to support banned and challenged books, and to learn about more of these titles click here.

Here is a list of just some of the many classic and powerful YA books that have been challenged or banned:

19 Love Songs

19 Love Songs

The New York Times bestselling author of Every Day, Someday, and Two Boys Kissing is back with a short story collection about love!

A resentful member of a high school Quiz Bowl team with an unrequited crush.

A Valentine's Day in the life of Every Day's protagonist "A."

A return to the characters of Two Boys Kissing.

19 Love Songs, from New York Times

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl

A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl

Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva all get mixed up with a senior boy–a cool, slick, sexy boy who can talk them into doing almost anything he wants. In a blur of high school hormones and personal doubt, each girl struggles with how much to give up and what ultimately to keep for herself. How do girls handle themselves? How much can a boy get away with? And in the end, who comes out
on top? A bad boy may always be a bad boy. But this bad boy is...

All the Bright Places

All the Bright Places

NOW A NETFLIX FILM, STARRING ELLE FANNING AND JUSTICE SMITH!

The New York Times bestselling love story about two teens who find each other while standing on the edge. And don’t miss Take Me with You When You Go, Jennifer Niven’s highly anticipated new book with bestselling author David Levithan!


Theodore Finch
is fascinated by death. Every day he thinks of ways he might kill hi...

Almost Perfect

Almost Perfect

This winner of the first Stonewall Award for Children’s & Young Adult Literature will make you marvel at the beauty of human connection and the irrepressible nature of love.
 
Everyone has that one line they swear they’ll never cross, the one thing they say they’ll never do. We draw the line. Maybe we even believe it.
 
Sage Hendricks was my line.
 
Logan Wit...

Anatomy of a Boyfriend

Anatomy of a Boyfriend

An unflinching account of love, sex, and heartbreak—this generation's answer to Judy Blume's Forever.

...

Another Day

Another Day

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Celebrate all the ways love makes us who we are with this enthralling and poignant follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Every Day--now a major motion picture.

David Levithan turns his New York Times bestseller Every Day on its head by flipping perspectives in this exploration of love and how it can change you.  
 
Every da...

Being Jazz

Being Jazz

Celebrate Pride every day with the teen advocate, trailblazer, and reality show star Jazz Jennings—one of Time Magazine's "25 Most Influential Teens" of the year. In this groundbreaking memoir, she inspires people to accept the differences in others while they embrace their own truths through sharing her very public transgender journey.

"Jazz is one of the transgender community's most important activists." &m...

Before We Were Free

Before We Were Free

PURE BELPRÉ AWARD WINNER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME • AN ALA-YALSA BEST BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS 

From renowned author Julia Alvarez comes an unforgettable story about adolescence, perseverance, and one girl’s struggle to be free while living in the Dominican Republic under the rule of a dictator. 

Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in t...

Boy Meets Boy

Boy Meets Boy

This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance.

When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds ...

Breathless

Breathless

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places comes a compulsively readable novel about a teen girl determined to write her own story--sex, heartbreak, family dramas, and all.

"A coming-of-age story that will make your heart ache." —PopSugar

With high school coming to an end, Claudine Henry is focused on four things: sex, starting college, becoming a famo...

Date Me, Bryson Keller

Date Me, Bryson Keller

"One of the most adorable, big-hearted, charming books in existence." --Becky Albertalli, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

What If It's Us meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before in this upbeat and heartfelt boy-meets-boy romance that feels like a modern twist on a '90s rom-com! 


Everyone knows about the dare: Each week, Bryson Keller must date som...

Discovering Wes Moore

Discovering Wes Moore

From the governor-elect of Maryland comes a story of two fatherless boys from Baltimore, both named Wes Moore. One is in prison, serving a life sentence for murder. The other is a Rhodes Scholar, an army veteran, and an author whose book is being turned into a movie produced by Oprah Winfrey.
 
The story of “the other Wes Moore” is one that the author couldn’t get out of his mind, not since he learned that an...

Every Day

Every Day

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by Booklist • Kirkus Reviews

Celebrate all the ways love makes us who we are with the romance that Entertainment Weekly calls "wise, wildly unique"--from the bestselling co-author of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist--about a teen who wakes up every morning in a different body, living a different life. Now a major motion picture!

<...

Everything, Everything

Everything, Everything

Risk everything for love with this #1 New York Times bestseller from Nicola Yoon • "Gorgeous and lyrical"—The New York Times Book Review

What if you couldn’t touch anything in the outside world? Never breathe in the fresh air, feel the sun warm your face . . . or kiss the boy next door? In Everything, Everything, Maddy is a girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world, and Olly...

Family of Liars

Family of Liars

The thrilling prequel to the TikTok phenomenon We Were Liars takes readers back to the summer that the Sinclair family’s lives changed forever.
 
A windswept private island off the coast of Massachusetts.
A hungry ocean, churning with secrets and sorrow.
A fiery, addicted heiress. An irresistible, unpredictable boy.
A summer of unforgivable betrayal and terrible mistakes.
Twenty-seven years before th...

Field Notes on Love

Field Notes on Love

"Utterly romantic." --Jenny Han, NYT bestselling author of To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Two teens are thrown together on a cross-country train trip that will teach them about love, each other, and the futures they can build for themselves in this meet-cute romance from the bestselling author of Windfall and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

It's the perfect idea...

Fly on the Wall

Fly on the Wall

"I think this might be the best YA novel . . . I've ever read." John Green

From E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars—the New York Times bestselling phenomenon—and the uproarious and heartwarming Ruby Oliver books, comes a fast-paced and hysterically funny novel that answers the question: What would it be like to be a fly on the wall in the boy's locker room?

Fresh Ink

Fresh Ink

All it takes to rewrite the rules is a little fresh ink in this remarkable YA collection from thirteen of the most recognizable diverse authors writing today including Nicola Yoon, Jason Reynolds, Melissa de la Cruz, and many more, and published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. 

"This awesome anthology came together with the fantastic organization We Need Diverse Books, and...combines an all-star cast of talent." -...

Full Disclosure

Full Disclosure

"An unflinchingly honest, eye-opening, heartful story that's sure to keep readers talking." --Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give and On the Come Up

"Romantic, funny, hopeful, and unflinchingly real." --Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon Vs. The Homosapiens Agenda

The uplifting story of an HIV-positive teen, ...

Girl Crushed

Girl Crushed

Leah on the Offbeat meets We Are Okay in this pitch-perfect queer romance about falling in love and never quite falling out of it--heartbreak, unexpected new crushes, and all.

Before Quinn Ryan was in love with Jamie Rudawski, she loved Jamie Rudawski, who was her best friend. But when Jamie dumps Quinn a month before their senior year, Quinn is suddenly girlfriend-less and best friend-less.

Enter a new ...

By

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Going Bovine

Going Bovine

From the author of the Gemma Doyle trilogy and The Diviners series, this groundbreaking New York Times bestseller and winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for literary excellence is "smart, funny, and layered," raves Entertainment Weekly.

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a...

Holding Up the Universe

Holding Up the Universe

New York Times Bestseller

From the author of the New York Times bestseller All the Bright Places comes a heart-wrenching story about what it means to see someone—and love someone—for who they truly are.

Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to k...

The Inheritance Cycle 4-Book Trade Paperback Boxed Set

The Inheritance Cycle 4-Book Trade Paperback Boxed Set

Don’t miss the eagerly anticipated epic new fantasy from Christopher Paolini—Murtagh!

Experience the international fantasy sensation that is the Inheritance Cycle with this complete collection of the New York Times bestselling series!

"Christopher Paolini is a true rarity." —The Washington Post


One boy, one dragon, and a world of adventure come together in this four-book boxed set...

Instructions for Dancing

Instructions for Dancing

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"A charming, wholehearted love story that's sure to make readers swoon."—Entertainment Weekly

"Nicola Yoon writes from the heart in this beautiful love story."—Good Morning America

“It’s like an emotional gut punch—so beautiful and also heart-wrenching."—US Weekly

In this romantic page-...

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “stunning” (America Ferrera) YA novel about a teenager coming to terms with losing her sister and finding herself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican American home.

“Alive and crackling—a gritty tale wrapped in a page-turner. ”—The New York Times

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go a...

Mastiff

Mastiff

A New York Times bestseller from the fantasy author who is legend herself: TAMORA PIERCE. In the final book in the Beka Cooper Trilogy, Beka uses her unique magic and street smarts to crack the case that will change an empire!

The more secret the Hunt, the more dangerous the mission.

Sometimes a distraction arrives at just the right time. After suffering a terrible loss, Beka is grateful when Lord Gershom c...

Mexican WhiteBoy

Mexican WhiteBoy

Newbery Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Matt de la Peña's Mexican WhiteBoy is a story of friendship, acceptance, and the struggle to find your identity in a world of definitions.

Danny is tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five mile an hour fastball, but the boy&r...

My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan

My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan

Justin has two goals for sophomore year: to date Chuck, the hottest boy in school, and to become the king of Cool U, the table in the cafeteria where the "in" crowd sits.

Unfortunately, he has the wrong look (short, plump, Brillo-pad curls), he has the wrong interests (Broadway, chorus, violin), and he has the wrong friends (Spencer, into Eastern religions, and Mary Ann,  who doesn't shave her armpits). And Chuck? Well, he's not gay;...

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Now a motion picture starring Victoria Justice!

From the New York Times bestselling authors of NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST, NAOMI AND ELY’S NO KISS LIST is the quintessential Girl-Likes-Boy-Who-Likes-Boys story.


Naomi and Ely are best friends. Inseparable since childhood. Naomi is straight. Ely is gay. Naomi dates guys who she claims to like. They’re okay, but she likes Ely more.
 
To pro...

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

The New York Times bestselling he-said/she-said rock n’ roll romance that inspired the motion picture starring Michael Cera (Juno, Arrested Development) and Kat Dennings (Thor, TV’s 2 Broke Girls)!

"I know this is going to sound strange, but would you mind being my girlfriend for the next five minutes?"

Nick frequents New York's indie rock scene nursing a broken heart. Norah i...

Now I Rise

Now I Rise

The highly anticipated, mind-blowing New York Times bestselling sequel to Kiersten White’s New York Times bestseller, AND I DARKEN—the series that reads like HBO’s Game of Thrones . . . if it were set in the Ottoman Empire. 
 
A SISTER FILLED WITH RAGE
Lada Dracul has no allies. No crown. All she has is what she’s always had: herself. After failing to sec...

Odd One Out

Odd One Out

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin comes an honest and touching depiction of friendship, first love, and everything in between. Perfect for fans of Love, Simon and What If It's Us.

Courtney Cooper and Jupiter Sanchez (Coop & Jupe!) have been next-door neighbors and best friends since they were seven-years-old. She's his partner-in-crime and other half. But lately, Coop...

One of Us Is Next

One of Us Is Next

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • There's a new mystery to solve at Bayview High, and there's a whole new set of rules. The highly anticipated sequel to One of Us Is Lying!

Come on, Bayview, you know you've missed this.

A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one's been able to fill th...

Pet

Pet

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • STONEWALL BOOK AWARD WINNER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by The New York Times • Time • Buzzfeed • NPRNew York Public Library • Publishers Weekly • School Library Journal

A genre-defying novel from the award-winning author NPR describes as &l...

Rage: A Love Story

Rage: A Love Story

A National Book Award Finalist offers an intense portrait of an abusive relationship.

Johanna is steadfast, patient, reliable; the go-to girl, the one everyone can count on. But always being there for others can’t give Johanna everything she needs—it can’t give her Reeve Hartt.

Reeve is fierce, beautiful, wounded, elusive; a flame that draws Johanna’s fluttering moth. Johanna is determined to get her, ...

Real Live Boyfriends

Real Live Boyfriends

From E. Lockhart, author of the highly acclaimed, New York Times bestseller We Were Liars, which John Green called "utterly unforgettable," comes Real Live Boyfriends, the fourth book in the uproarious and heartwarming Ruby Oliver novels that finds Ruby Oliver as neurotic and hyperverbal as ever as she interviews her friends for a documentary on love and popularity and while doing so turns up some u...

Someday

Someday

Celebrate all the ways love makes us who we are with the sequel to the New York Times bestseller Every Day, now a major motion picture.

Every day a new body. Every day a new life. Every day a new choice.

For as long as A can remember, life has meant waking up in a different person's body every day, forced to live as that person until the day ended. A always thought there wasn't anyone else who had a life ...

Tell Me Three Things

Tell Me Three Things

A New York Times Bestseller
 
“Here are three things about this book: (1) It’s . . .  funny and romantic; (2) the mystery at the heart of the story will keep you turning the pages; (3) I have a feeling you’ll be very happy you read it.” —Jennifer E. Smith, author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
 
With the perfect mix of comedy and tragedy, love and...

The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War

One of the most controversial YA novels of all time, The Chocolate War is a modern masterpiece that speaks to fans of S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders and John Knowles’s A Separate Peace.
 
After suffering rejection from seven major publishers, The Chocolate War made its debut in 1974, and quickly became a bestselling—and provocative—classic for young adults. This c...

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
 
"Inescapably compelling."VICTORIA SCHWAB, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie Larue


"A masterful and monstrous retelling." —STEPHANIE GARBER, #1 New York Times and internat...

The Face on the Milk Carton

The Face on the Milk Carton

A psychological thriller about a teenager who sees her own face staring back at her from a missing children's notice on the back of a milk carton. An emotionally evocative and chilling read that seamlessly blends mystery and suspense for fans of A GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER and WE WERE LIARS.

“It's a gripper. You can't put it down.” —Entertainment Weekly

"A real page-turner." &mdash...

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

In Mary's world there are simple truths.
   The Sisterhood always knows best.
   The Guardians will protect and serve.
   The Unconsecrated will never relent.
   And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
   But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things...

The Magic Fish

The Magic Fish

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by the New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Publishers Weekly

Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he's been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us ...

The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh

The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh

WINNER OF THE 2021 YALSA AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS!
 
SIX STARRED REVIEWS!

Discover the dark side of Charles Lindbergh--one of America's most celebrated heroes and complicated men--in this riveting biography from the acclaimed author of The Family Romanov.

First human to cross the Atlantic via airplane; one of the first American media sensations; Nazi sympathizer and a...

The Sun Is Also a Star

The Sun Is Also a Star

The #1 New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist from the bestselling author of Everything, Everything will have you falling in love with Natasha and Daniel as they fall in love with each other!

Natasha:
I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New Y...

This Is My America

This Is My America

"Incredible and searing." --Nic Stone, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin

The Hate U Give meets Just Mercy in this unflinching yet uplifting first novel that explores the racist injustices in the American justice system.


Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on dea...

Trickster's Queen

Trickster's Queen

The stage is set for revolution. Legends will rise in this dramatic New York Times and USA Today bestselling conclusion to Trickster’s Choice, the spy adventure from the fantasy author who is legend herself: Tamora Pierce!

No longer a slave, Aly has risen through the ranks of the rebellion to become a master of spies. And just in time, she is brought out of exile and into the heart of the snakes’ den...

Two Boys Kissing

Two Boys Kissing

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • STONEWALL HONOR BOOK  •  LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER  •  NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST

"You have to read this.” —Rainbow Rowell, bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and Carry On

From the New York Times bestselling author of Every Day, this love story of shared humanity and history Hypable call...

Two Can Keep a Secret

Two Can Keep a Secret

The "must-read YA thriller" (Bustle) from #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying about a small town with deadly secrets.

"When it comes to YA suspense, Karen M. McManus is in a league of her own..." --Entertainment Weekly


Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ag...

You'd Be Home Now

You'd Be Home Now

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the critically acclaimed author of Girl in Pieces comes a stunning novel that Vanity Fair calls “impossibly moving” and “suffused with light”. In this raw, deeply personal story, a teenaged girl struggles to find herself amidst the fallout of her brother's addiction in a town ravaged by the opioid crisis.

For all of Emory's life she's been told w...

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