9 Banned Books We Just Can’t Live Without

Considered one of the most influential books of the past 20 years, legal scholar Michelle Alexander’s staggering interrogation of the ways in which modern America’s criminal justice system—as a result of decades of disastrous and explicitly racist policies like the supposed “War on Drugs”—disproportionately affects people of color is a necessary reexamination of our nation’s recent past and a reminder of what we must undo to change its present. —Ibram X. Kendi

Read the book that inspired the adorable 2018 movie Love, Simon. Sixteen-year-old Simon Spier is gay but not ready to come out. He’s most honest and at-ease when exchanging flirty emails under a pseudonym to a friend online. When someone gets the emails and threatens to spill his secret, Simon’s budding relationship is put in jeopardy. —Elena Nicolaou

James Baldwin wrote The Fire Next Time to galvanize readers of all backgrounds to “end the racial nightmare” and in doing so, “achieve our country, and change the history of the world.” First published in 1963, The Fire Next Time is often credited with giving a voice to the civil rights movement—but Baldwin’s essays about his childhood in Harlem, and the urgent need for racial justice, are as relevant as ever. —Claudia Rankine

Yes, echoes of Demi Lovato‘s 2015 bop resound throughout these sweet and sultry pages, but Adler’s novel offers a wonderfully queer spin on another August-becomes-September anthem: Grease‘s “Summer Nights.” Larissa had spent her summer vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where she met and fell for the enrapturing Jasmine; returning to school in New York, and to her hopelessly devoted crush on a hot football hunk, Chase, she’s more than a little surprised to find Jasmine there lighting up the hallways. When Chase finally asks her out, Larissa’s dreams of dating the perfect boy are ripped at the seams. —Michelle Hart

Now a critically acclaimed television series on Hulu, Atwood‘s dystopian novel follows a handmaid named Offred who’s subjected to life under the laws of a near-future North America called Gilead. The society follows the Bible’s Book of Genesis verbatim, subjecting women to cruelty in the name of replenishing the diminished population. —McKenzie Jean-Philippe

Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy spend their adolescence at a secluded English boarding school, kept away from the outside world. Only after Ruth and Tommy escape do they discover why they’ve been isolated. Ishiguro’s speculative tour de force is a poignant coming-of-age tale about sacrifice, impermanence, and what it means to be human. —Carolyn Quimby

To call The Hate U Give a bestseller would be an understatement. Angie Thomas’s debut novel, about a Black teenage girl torn between her neighborhood and fitting in at her private high school, is a mega-hit that raised a national dialogue on urgent topics like racism and police violence. Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter’s worlds collide after she witnesses the fatal shooting of her best friend, Khalil. —E.N.

Told in a series of short, interconnected vignettes, Cisneros’s acclaimed 1984 novel tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a 12-year-old Chicano girl growing up in Chicago. “In English my name means hope,” she explains at the book’s start. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.” What really draws you into the story is Esperanza’s longing—for “a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year,” for a best friend “who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them,” and for adult knowledge like that of Marin, an older girl with pretty eyes who smokes and wears short skirts. Then, there is the danger. In Esperanza’s neighborhood, safety is not a given, especially when it comes to older men who prey upon young girls. Miraculously, Cisneros manages to channel these harsh truths while also delivering a story that delivers—yes—hope. —Catherine Hong

Butler, an undisputed master of socially conscious sci-fi, begins her Parable duology in 2024. In a world wracked by climate change, scarcity, and political unrest, 15-year-old Lauren’s walled-in community is destroyed, and she’s forced to travel north as a refugee. —C.Q.