Books Banned in Tennessee

36 banned books

BANNED 198 challenges

Slaughterhouse-Five

by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five is Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war masterpiece about Billy Pilgrim, who becomes 'unstuck in time' and exper...

ViolenceSexual ContentLanguage
BANNED 189 challenges

Looking for Alaska

by John Green

Looking for Alaska is John Green's debut novel about a teenager who enrolls at a boarding school and falls for the brill...

Sexual ContentLanguageDrug/Alcohol Use
BANNED 187 challenges

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is Sherman Alexie's semi-autobiographical novel about Arnold Spirit Jr.,...

Sexual ContentLanguageRacial Content
BANNED 162 challenges

Sold

by Patricia McCormick

Sold is a novel-in-verse about Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal who is trafficked and sold into sexual slave...

Sexual ContentViolence
BANNED 161 challenges

Speak

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak is Laurie Halse Anderson's award-winning novel about Melinda Sordino, a high school freshman who is ostracized aft...

Sexual ContentViolenceAge Inappropriateness
BANNED 154 challenges

Identical

by Ellen Hopkins

Identical is a novel-in-verse about identical twin sisters Kaeleigh and Raeanne, whose seemingly perfect political famil...

Sexual ContentViolenceDrug/Alcohol Use
BANNED 146 challenges

Out of Darkness

by Ashley Hope Pérez

Out of Darkness is a historical novel set in 1937 East Texas, interweaving a forbidden interracial love story between a ...

Sexual ContentRacial ContentViolence
BANNED 143 challenges

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel set in Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that has replaced the U...

Sexual ContentPolitical ContentReligious Objections
BANNED 138 challenges

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped is a young adult adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning, remixed by Jason Reynolds to trace t...

Racial ContentPolitical Content
BANNED 98 challenges

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

by Jesse Andrews

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a darkly comic young adult novel about Greg, a socially awkward high school senior who...

LanguageSexual Content
BANNED 30 challenges

The Lovely Bones

by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is narrated by Susie Salmon, a fourteen-year-old girl who watches from heaven as her family and killer ...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage
BANNED 25 challenges

Burned

by Ellen Hopkins

Burned tells the story of Pattyn Von Stratten, a seventeen-year-old girl raised in a strict Mormon household who begins ...

Sexual ContentReligious ObjectionsDrug/Alcohol Use
BANNED 25 challenges

This One Summer

by Mariko Tamaki

This One Summer is a graphic novel about Rose and Windy, two girls spending the summer at a lakeside town, navigating th...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage
BANNED 22 challenges

Glass

by Ellen Hopkins

Glass is the sequel to Crank, continuing Kristina Snow's descent into methamphetamine addiction as she loses custody of ...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage
BANNED 20 challenges

Impulse

by Ellen Hopkins

Impulse follows three teenagers who meet in a psychiatric hospital after each has attempted suicide. It has been challen...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseViolence
BANNED 20 challenges

Perfect

by Ellen Hopkins

Perfect follows four teenagers whose pursuit of perfection leads them into eating disorders, steroid abuse, drug addicti...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLGBTQ+ Themes
BANNED 18 challenges

Fallout

by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout follows the three children of Kristina Snow from the Crank trilogy as they navigate the lasting damage of their ...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage
BANNED 18 challenges

Grown

by Tiffany D. Jackson

Grown follows Enchanted Jones, a teenage singer who is groomed and abused by a famous R&B artist, inspired by real cases...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage
BANNED 18 challenges

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

by Erika L. Sánchez

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter follows Julia Reyes, a first-generation Mexican American teenager dealing with he...

Sexual ContentLanguageDrug/Alcohol Use
BANNED 18 challenges

The Poet X

by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X follows Xiomara Batista, a Dominican American teenager in Harlem who pours her frustrations with her strict r...

Sexual ContentReligious ObjectionsLanguage
BANNED 18 challenges

Tower of Dawn

by Sarah J. Maas

Tower of Dawn follows Chaol Westfall as he journeys to the southern continent seeking healing and an alliance against th...

Sexual ContentViolence
BANNED 16 challenges

Homegoing

by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing traces two branches of a family tree across three centuries, from 18th-century Ghana through the slave trade t...

Sexual ContentViolenceRacial Content
BANNED 16 challenges

I'll Give You the Sun

by Jandy Nelson

I'll Give You the Sun follows twins Jude and Noah, whose bond is shattered by secrets, grief, and the discovery of Noah'...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentLanguage
BANNED 16 challenges

Monday's Not Coming

by Tiffany D. Jackson

Monday's Not Coming follows Claudia, a Black teenager whose best friend Monday goes missing and no one seems to care eno...

ViolenceLanguageRacial Content
BANNED 16 challenges

Smoke

by Ellen Hopkins

Smoke is the sequel to Burned, continuing Pattyn Von Stratten's story as she deals with devastating loss, her sister's r...

Sexual ContentViolenceDrug/Alcohol Use
BANNED 16 challenges

The Female of the Species

by Mindy McGinnis

The Female of the Species follows Alex Craft, a girl who killed the man who raped and murdered her sister, and the two c...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage
BANNED 16 challenges

Traffick

by Ellen Hopkins

Traffick is the sequel to Tricks, following five teenagers trapped in sex trafficking as they fight to escape and rebuil...

Sexual ContentViolenceDrug/Alcohol Use
BANNED 16 challenges

Vampire Academy

by Richelle Mead

Vampire Academy follows Rose Hathaway, a half-vampire guardian-in-training, and her best friend Lissa, a Moroi vampire p...

Sexual ContentViolenceReligious Objections
BANNED 15 challenges

Shout

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Shout is Laurie Halse Anderson's memoir-in-verse about surviving sexual assault, becoming a writer, and the decades she ...

Sexual ContentViolenceLanguage
BANNED 15 challenges

This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story

by Kacen Callender

This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story follows Nathan Bird, a film-obsessed teen who realizes he's in love with his best fri...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content
BANNED 14 challenges

Like a Love Story

by Abdi Nazemian

Like a Love Story follows three teenagers in 1989 New York City navigating love, identity, and the AIDS crisis. It has b...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content
BANNED 14 challenges

More Happy Than Not

by Adam Silvera

More Happy Than Not follows Aaron Soto, a Bronx teenager who considers a memory-altering procedure to forget his emergin...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentViolence
BANNED 14 challenges

The Carnival at Bray

by Jessie Ann Foley

The Carnival at Bray follows Maggie Lynch, a Chicago teenager transplanted to a small Irish town in 1993, navigating gri...

Sexual ContentDrug/Alcohol UseLanguage
BANNED 14 challenges

The You I've Never Known

by Ellen Hopkins

The You I've Never Known follows Ariel, a teen discovering her sexual orientation while uncovering the truth about her f...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentViolence
BANNED 14 challenges

We Are the Ants

by Shaun David Hutchinson

We Are the Ants follows Henry Denton, a teen who has been periodically abducted by aliens and is now given a choice: pre...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual ContentViolence
BANNED 12 challenges

The Upside of Unrequited

by Becky Albertalli

The Upside of Unrequited follows Molly Peskin-Suso, a plus-size teen with 26 unrequited crushes, as she navigates love a...

LGBTQ+ ThemesSexual Content