Banned Books Reader’s Advisory

Join us at the FIMS Graduate Library for a special Banned Books Week event exploring readers’ advisory and the fight against censorship. This one-hour presentation will highlight some of the most challenged and banned books in Canada and the United States, including:

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Maus by Art Spiegelman
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
• This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
• Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez

This presentation will explore how censorship and book banning intersects with racism and the deliberate suppression of marginalized voices and diverse narratives. Attendees will also learn practical ways to defend diverse books, support intellectual freedom, and amplify the voices of educators and librarians.

Why it matters: Book bans have reached historic highs in the past three years in the US and Canada.In the 2023-2024 school year alone, PEN America reported more than 10,000 instances of banned books in public schools, affecting more than 4,000 unique titles. These mass book bans were often the result of targeted campaigns to remove books with characters of color, LGBTQ+ identities, and sexual content from public school classrooms and libraries. This presentation aligns with the 2025 Banned Books Week theme, “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights.”

Bring your questions and ideas for the Q&A session following the talk!