When I became Young People’s Poet Laureate in 2024, book bans were proliferating in red states, often targeting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ subject matter. In response to the wave of censorship, I conducted readings in states where efforts to ban books and to erase African American history are on the rise.
Now, as my tenure as Young People’s Poet Laureate nears its end, I have asked poets who write for young people to report titles that have been targeted by bans, challenges or so-called “soft bans.” I did further research myself and consulted data collected by Evalena Lakin, librarian assistant for the Poetry Foundation.
The resulting list, BANNED POETS SOCIETY, cites works by leading poets for young people, including several of my fellow Young People’s Poets Laureate: Margarita Engle, Elizabeth Acevedo, Jacqueline Woodson, Naomi Shahib Nye, Nikki Grimes–my successor–and myself. Through my research, I found that ten of my own books have been targeted.
This list below shines a light poets whose work is bold and brave and on books that young people deserve the freedom to read. These diverse books enlighten, enrich, empower, and, most importantly, cultivate empathy among a most important audience.
If you identify other banned or challenged books of poetry for children and young adults, please contact me, so that I can update the list.
| POETS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE | BANNED OR CHALLENGED CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT BOOKS |
| Elizabeth Acevedo | The Poet X |
| Maria Dolores Aguila | A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez |
| Kwame Alexander | The Undefeated |
| Laurie Halse Anderson | Shout: A Poetry Memoir |
| Andrea Beatriz Arango | Iveliz Explains It All |
| Dean Atta | The Black Flamingo |
| Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatwood, editors | Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice |
| Lesa Cline-Ransome | Before She Was Harriet |
| Matt de la Pena | Last Stop on Market Street |
| Safia Elhillo | Home Is Not a Country |
| Zetta Elliott | A Place Inside of Me Say Her Name |
| Margarita Engle | Drum Dream Girl A Dog Named Haiku |
| Reem Faruqi | Lailah’s Lunchbox |
| Betsy Franco | You Hear Me? Poems and Writings by Teenage Boys |
| Kate Fussner | The Song of Us |
| Amanda Gorman | Change Sings Girls on the Rise |
| Robin Gow | Dear Mothman A Million Quiet Revolutions |
| Meg Grehan | The Deepest Breath |
| Nikki Grimes | Ordinary Hazards |
| Joanna Ho | Eyes that Kiss in the Corners |
| Ellen Hopkins | Tilt Crank |
| Cheryl Hudson and Wade Hudson, editors | We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices |
| Candace Iloh | Every Body Looking |
| Bee Johnson | What Can a Mess Make |
| Supriya Kelkar | Brown Is Beautiful: A Poem of Self-Love |
| Meg Eden Kuyatt | Good Different |
| Thanhha Lai | Inside Out and Back Again |
| Rajani LaRocca | Red, White, and Whole |
| Irene Latham and Charles Waters | Can I Touch Your Hair: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship |
| Grace Lin | A Big Mooncake for Little Star |
| Carole Lindstrom | We Are the Water Protectors |
| Jessica Love | Julian Is a Mermaid Julian at the Wedding |
| Amber McBride | We Are All So Good at Smiling |
| Alice McGinty | Bathe the Cat |
| Jasminne Mendez | The Story of My Anger |
| Eve Merriam | Halloween ABC Inner City Mother Goose |
| Lindsay Metcalf, editor | No Voice Too Small |
| Yuyi Morales | Dreamers |
| Marilyn Nelson | A Wreath for Emmett Till |
| Lesléa Newman | October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard |
| Naomi Shahib Nye, editor | The Flag of Childhood: Poems from the Middle East |
| Gayle Pitman | This Day in June My Maddy |
| Jason Reynolds | Long Way Down |
| Christian Robinson | You Matter |
| Shifa Saltagi Safadi | Kareem Between |
| Yusuf Salam and Ibi Zoboi | Punching the Air |
| Aida Salazar | The Moon Within Land of the Cranes |
| Erika Sanchez | I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter |
| Hannah V. Sawyerr | All the Fighting Parts |
| John Schu | Louder than Hunger |
| Dr. Seuss | The Lorax Hop on Pop |
| Shel Silverstein | A Light in the Attic |
| Nikkolas Smith | The Artivist |
| Traci Sorell | At the Mountain’s Base |
| Jamila Thompkins-Bigelow | Your Name Is a Song |
| Padma Venkatraman | Safe Harbor A Time to Dance |
| Jasmine Warga | Other Words for Home |
| Renée Watson | Black Girl You are Atlas The 1619 Project: Born on the Water Maya’s Song |
| Carole Boston Weatherford | Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane Freedom in Congo Square Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America How Do You Spell Unfair: Macnolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre |
| Ashley Woodfolk | Nothing Burns as Bright as You |
| Jacqueline Woodson | Brown Girl Dreaming The Day You Begin |
