Celebrate Banned Books Week

And Then There Were None

By: Agatha Christie
Narrated by: Dan Stevens
Length: 6 hours 1 minute

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 PickOne of the most famous and beloved mysteries from The Queen of Suspense—Agatha Christie—now a Lifetime TV movie."Ten . . ."
Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U. N. Owen.""Nine . . ."
At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a... Read more

The Hate U Give

By: Angie Thomas
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 11 hours 50 minutes

“This bestselling, powerful young adult novel about social justice and one teen girl's effort to fight for what is right, will leave you breathless. The narration by Bahni Turpin is hands down the best I've ever heard. This is such an important book it should be required reading for life in general. Or listening. Definitely listening. Read more

The Poet X

By: Elizabeth Acevedo
Narrated by: Elizabeth Acevedo
Length: 3 hours 30 minutes

“The Poet X is written and narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo. It is a novel made up of poems by a teenager, Xiomara Batista, growing up in Harlem. Acevedo's narration is wonderful and brings the story to life. Xiomara's dad is MIA even though he lives at home; her mother is extremely religious and pushes her faith onto her daughter; her twin brother... Read more

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

By: Maya Angelou
Narrated by: Maya Angelou
Length: 10 hours 10 minutes

Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute... Read more

The Bluest Eye

By: Toni Morrison
Narrated by: Toni Morrison
Length: 7 hours 5 minutes

“Toni Morrison was a visionary. This, her first novel, was my first foray into her work, and I found it approachable, yet deep with meaning. It borrows its structure from a children’s Dick and Jane story, which Toni reads like a haunting incantation. Her narration of the entire book is flawless and stunning, like the text itself. The novel... Read more

Melissa (previously published as GEORGE)

By: Alex Gino
Narrated by: Jamie Clayton
Length: 3 hours 16 minutes

“This book, which the author is now calling Melissa’s Story, is tender and wholesome—about a young transgender girl who wants to play Charlotte in her 4th grade production of Charlotte’s Web. Read more

The 1619 Project

A New Origin Story

By: Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman & Jake Silverstein
Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones & Full Cast
Length: 18 hours 56 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • NPR • Marie Claire
 
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of... Read more

The Kite Runner

By: Khaled Hosseini
Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini
Length: 12 hours 3 minutes

A Stunning Novel of Hope and Redemption

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir... Read more

Dangerous Ideas

A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News

By: Eric Berkowitz
Narrated by: Tim Campbell
Length: 10 hours 38 minutes

A fascinating examination of how restricting speech has continuously shaped our culture, and how censorship is used as a tool to prop up authorities and maintain class and gender disparities

Through compelling narrative, historian Eric Berkowitz reveals how drastically censorship has shaped our modern society. More than just a history of... Read more

All Boys Aren't Blue

A Memoir-Manifesto

By: George M. Johnson
Narrated by: George M. Johnson
Length: 5 hours 11 minutes

This program is read by the author.

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.

A New York Times Bestseller!
Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Today Show, and MSNBC feature stories

... Read more

Gone With the Wind

By: Margaret Mitchell
Narrated by: Linda Stephens
Length: 49 hours 5 minutes

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell's great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the... Read more

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

By: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Narrated by: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Length: 7 hours 29 minutes

Now a major motion picture starring Max Pelayo, Reese Gonzales, and Eva Longoria!
A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)

Dive into the award-winning, internationally renowned book that is a “tender, honest exploration of identity” (Publishers Weekly) and distills lyrical truths about family and friendship—featuring images from the film!

Aristotle... Read more

Ulysses

By: James Joyce
Narrated by: Donal Donnelly & Miriam Healy-Louie
Length: 27 hours 15 minutes

The young poet Stephen has been recalled from Paris to Dublin to be at his mother's deathbed. But he refuses her dying wishes: to kneel and pray for her. Now, holed up in his Martello tower outside the city walls, he has to suffer the taunts of Buck Mulligan by day and, by night, the vision of 'her eyes, shaking out of death to shake and bend my... Read more

I Am Malala

The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

By: Malala Yousafzai
Narrated by: Archie Panjabi
Length: 9 hours 54 minutes

A MEMOIR BY THE YOUNGEST RECIPIENT OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

As seen on Netflix with David Letterman
"I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday."

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to... Read more

The Face on the Milk Carton

Janie Johnson (Face on the Milk Carton): Book #1

By: Caroline B. Cooney
Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
Length: 5 hours 17 minutes

When 15-year-old Janie Johnson sees her own face in the missing children box on a milk carton, her world begins to blur. Was she kidnapped when she was a baby? Who are her parents? And who are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson? Janie's search for the answers will lead her back twelve years into memories of another house, another family, another life. Her... Read more

This Book Is Gay

By: Juno Dawson
Narrated by: Christopher Solimene
Length: 6 hours 47 minutes

Lesbian. Bisexual. Queer. Transgender. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who's ever dared to wonder. This book is for you.

There's a long-running joke that, after "coming out," a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and... Read more

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World

By: Ashley Herring Blake
Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
Length: 6 hours 6 minutes

In the wake of a destructive tornado, one girl develops feelings for another in this stunning, tender novel about emerging identity, perfect for fans of The Thing About Jellyfish.

When a tornado rips through town, twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen's house is destroyed and her family of five is displaced. Ivy feels invisible and ignored in the... Read more

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning

By: Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Jason Reynolds
Length: 4 hours 11 minutes

“To say that I wish books like this had been part of the curriculum when I was in school would be an understatement. History classes reduce(d) racism to something of the past, something that existed only among small groups of hateful people. But that simply isn't the case. And that is why books like Stamped should be required reading, for young... Read more

Crank

By: Ellen Hopkins
Narrated by: Laura Flanagan
Length: 4 hours 31 minutes

Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father, she meets a boy who introduces her to crank. At first she finds it freeing, but soon Kristina's personality disappears inside the drug. What began as a wild, ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through... Read more

You Can't Say That!

Writers for Young People Talk about Censorship, Free Expression, and the Stories They Have to Tell

By: Leonard S. Marcus (Editor)
Narrated by: Tom Parks, Thom Rivera, Janet Metzger, Roxanne Hernandez, Arthur Morey & Susan Dalian
Length: 6 hours 22 minutes

What happens when freedom of expression comes under threat? In frank and wide-ranging interviews, historian and critic Leonard S. Marcus probes the experience of thirteen leading authors of books for young people.A powerful photo essay on transgender teens is called anti-religious and anti-family. A meticulously researched primer on sex... Read more