Celebrate Banned Books

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

Pet

By: Akwaeke Emezi
Narrated by: Christopher Myers
Length: 5 hours 32 minutes

National Book Award Finalist

Stonewall Book Award Winner

"[A] beautiful, genre-expanding debut...Pet is a nesting doll of creative possibilities." (The New York Times)

The award-winning, genre-defying novel by the New York Times best-selling author of The Death of Vivek Oji that explores themes of identity and justice and asks: How do you share the... Read more

Homegoing

A novel

By: Yaa Gyasi
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 13 hours 10 minutes

“Homegoing is an epic narrative that is sure to become a treasured staple. Two sisters in Ghana are marked by fiery tragedy: one is married off to an English slave trader, and the other is sold to be a slave in America. The story follows their descendants generation by generation. Homegoing will break your heart over and over, impress you with... Read more

Monday's Not Coming

By: Tiffany D. Jackson
Narrated by: Imani Parks
Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

“This heartbreaking, mind-bending thriller reads like truth: Monday Charles, a young black girl who lives in poverty, whose care has been shifted from one agency to another until no one knows who is supposed be looking out for her, disappears at the beginning of a long, hot, DC summer. But only her best friend Claudia registers her disappearance.... Read more

This Book Is Anti-Racist

By: Tiffany Jewell
Narrated by: Tiffany Jewell
Length: 2 hours 46 minutes

What is racism?
What is anti-racism? 
How can you stand up and take action?

In this engaging audio version of the New York Times best-selling This Book is Anti-Racist, young people will learn how to take action against racism and injustice.  The audiobook explores identity, history, and the language surrounding racism as each chapter naturally... Read more

This Is My America

By: Kim Johnson
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 9 hours 34 minutes

“I can’t believe this is Kim Johnson’s debut novel! It has easily cemented a spot in the social justice YA canon, alongside The Hate U Give, Monster, and co. Written with an expert hand, This Is My America follows Tracy Beaumont as she fights to get her innocent father off of death row, while also trying to keep her community safe from police... Read more

You Should See Me in a Crown

By: Leah Johnson
Length: 7 hours 18 minutes

“Here is the novel that will restore your faith in humanity in spades. In Campbell, Indiana, being crowned prom royalty is the ultimate recognition. And this year Liz Lighty needs to win that crown because it happens to be attached to an academic scholarship she desperately needs. The cards are stacked against her: she struggles with anxiety,... Read more

Sister Outsider

Essays and Speeches

Crossing Press Feminist: Book #1

By: Audre Lorde
Narrated by: Robin Eller
Length: 7 hours 31 minutes

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action... Read more

How Beautiful We Were

A Novel

By: Imbolo Mbue
Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards, Dion Graham, JD Jackson, Allyson Johnson & Lisa Renee Pitts
Length: 14 hours 7 minutes

A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers.

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People• ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review,The... Read more

Ghost Boys

By: Jewell Parker Rhodes
Narrated by: Miles Harvey
Length: 2 hours 51 minutes

A heartbreaking and powerful story about a black boy killed by a police officer, drawing connections through history, from award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes.

Only the living can make the world better. Live and make it better.

Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he... Read more

Pushout

The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

By: Monique W. Morris
Narrated by: Kristyl Dawn Tift
Length: 8 hours 54 minutes

Fifteen-year-old Diamond stopped going to school the day she was expelled for lashing out at peers who constantly harassed and teased her for something everyone on the staff had missed: she was being trafficked for sex. After months on the run, she was arrested and sent to a detention center for violating a court order to attend school.

Just... Read more

They Both Die at the End

By: Adam Silvera
Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Robbie Daymond & Bahni Turpin
Length: 8 hours 29 minutes

“You go into this book knowing it's going to hurt. But somehow, you still root for the characters and bond with them. It makes you think about what you would do if you knew it was the end. I'm sad after reading this book. But not sad in a bad way. Sad in a way that made me want to hug my family. And go on walks. And make sure I am living fully.... Read more

Burned

By: Ellen Hopkins
Narrated by: Laura Flanagan
Length: 5 hours 21 minutes

Raised in a stern, abusive Mormon household, a teenage girl starts to question her religion and struggles to find her destiny.

Her father is abusive, her mother is submissive, and her church looks the other way. Confused and angry, Pattyn Von Stratten acts out and is sent to live with an aunt on a Nevada ranch. She finds the love and acceptance... Read more

Identical

By: Ellen Hopkins
Narrated by: Laura Flanagan
Length: 8 hours 43 minutes

In the latest hard-hitting YA novel by the New York Times bestselling author, sixteen-year-old identical twin girls must come to terms with their abusive father.

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are sixteen-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for Congress. Everything on the surface of their... Read more

Impulse

By: Ellen Hopkins
Narrated by: Steve Coombs, Laura Flanagan & Jeremy Guskin
Length: 6 hours 48 minutes

Three teens who have attempted suicide meet in a psychiatric hospital, battle their demons, and begin to heal.

The handsome son of wealthy parents, Connor has everything anyone could want—except his family’s love and affection. Jailed for years after killing his mother’s child-molesting boyfriend, Tony is confused about his sexuality.... Read more

Fallout

By: Ellen Hopkins
Narrated by: Candace Thaxton, Rebekkah Ross, Jonathan Todd Ross & Kirby Heyborne
Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

This gripping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Crank trilogy features a refreshed look and a trade paperback trim size.

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow’s five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They share only a predisposition for addiction and a host of troubled... 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

The Glass Castle

A Memoir

By: Jeannette Walls
Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
Length: 10 hours 25 minutes

THE BELOVED #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER—FROM THE AUTHOR OF HANG THE MOON

The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” (Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers.

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply... 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

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