Tag: book recommendations

Lest we forget…Remembrance Day Virtual Book Display

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Remembrance Day is an important time to reflect on the past and also consider the future. It is an important time to remember the sacrifices that people have made in times of conflict in an effort to bring about peace. We’ve put together a list of books that can help offer new perspectives and discussion on difficult topics. These books can help you learn about past events so that we can honour the sacrifices made and better understand what people went through during times of war.

This list has been split into Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction, Junior Fiction, Children’s Picture Books and Children’s Non-Fiction. It is only a small selection of books in our collection that discuss different wars and historical events to honour Remembrance Day. So if you don’t see anything to interest you on this list, drop into the library or give us a call or email for more book recommendations! All titles are available either in print at the library or through Libby/Overdrive. Click on the title to place a hold! Need help accessing Libby from your computer or mobile device? Email us at info@stirlinglibrary.com or call us at (613)395-2837 and a staff member will be happy to help. Need a library card? Contact us and we can set one up for you!

Adult Fiction

An Orphan’s War by Molly Green

LIVERPOOL, 1940
When her childhood sweetheart Johnny is killed in action, Maxine Grey loses more than her husband – she loses her best friend. Desperate to make a difference in this awful war, Maxine takes a nursing job at London’s St Thomas’s Hospital.

A BROKEN HEART
Maxine takes comfort in the attentions of a handsome surgeon, but Edwin Blake might not be all he seems. And as the Blitz descends on the capital, Maxine returns to Liverpool heartbroken and surrounded by the threat of scandal.

A BRAVE SPIRIT
When offered a job at a Dr Barnardo’s orphanage, Maxine hopes this is the second chance she has been looking for. And one little boy in particular helps her to realise that she needs the orphans just as much as they need her…

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles.

Paris, 1939.
Young, ambitious, and tempestuous, Odile Souchet has it all: Paul, her handsome police officer beau; Margaret, her best friend from England; Remy, her twin brother who she adores; and a dream job at the American Library in Paris, working alongside the library’s legendary director, Dorothy Reeder. When World War II breaks out, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear—including her beloved library. After the Nazi army marches into the City of Light and declares a war on words, Odile and her fellow librarians join the Resistance with the best weapons they have: books. Again and again, they risk their lives to help their fellow Jewish readers, but by war’s end, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal.

The Huntress by Kate Quinn

Bold and fearless, Nina Markova always dreamed of flying. When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, she risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment wreaking havoc on the invading Germans. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, and only Nina’s bravery and cunning will keep her alive.

Transformed by the horrors he witnessed from Omaha Beach to the Nuremberg Trials, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress. To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. But a shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.

Growing up in post-war Boston, seventeen-year-old Jordan McBride is determined to become a photographer. When her long-widowed father unexpectedly comes homes with a new fiancée, Jordan is thrilled. But there is something disconcerting about the soft-spoken German widow. Certain that danger is lurking, Jordan begins to delve into her new stepmother’s past—only to discover that there are mysteries buried deep in her family . . . secrets that may threaten all Jordan holds dear.

In this immersive, heart-wrenching story, Kate Quinn illuminates the consequences of war on individual lives, and the price we pay to seek justice and truth.

The German Heiress by Anika Scott

Clara Falkenberg, once Germany’s most eligible and lauded heiress, earned the nickname “the Iron Fräulein” during World War II for her role operating her family’s ironworks empire. It’s been nearly two years since the war ended and she’s left with nothing but a false identification card and a series of burning questions about her family’s past. With nowhere else to run to, she decides to return home and take refuge with her dear friend, Elisa.

Narrowly escaping a near-disastrous interrogation by a British officer who’s hell-bent on arresting her for war crimes, she arrives home to discover the city in ruins, and Elisa missing. As Clara begins tracking down Elisa, she encounters Jakob, a charismatic young man working on the black market, who, for his own reasons, is also searching for Elisa. Clara and Jakob soon discover how they might help each other—if only they can stay ahead of the officer determined to make Clara answer for her actions during the war.

Propulsive, meticulously researched, and action-fueled, The German Heiress is a mesmerizing page-turner that questions the meaning of justice and morality, deftly shining the spotlight on the often-overlooked perspective of Germans who were caught in the crossfire of the Nazi regime and had nowhere to turn.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.

Adult Non-Fiction

Masters of the Air by Roger Gunn

Alan McLeod, from Stonewall, Manitoba; Andrew McKeever, from Listowel, Ontario; and Donald MacLaren, originally from Calgary, Alberta, were daring and talented pilots. Although decidedly different from each other — in personality, in the planes they flew, and in their contributions to the war effort — they shared a strong sense of duty and a passion for flying, performing remarkable deeds in primitive planes, when aviation was in its infancy.

One hundred years after they flew and fought for king and country, Masters of the Air brings these three men to life, detailing their development as pilots, battles in the air, and near-death experiences Like thousands of others, these three men answered the call to fight for the British Empire. And in the skies of Europe, they achieved greatness.

U-Boat Killer  50 North Canada’s Atlantic Battleground by Donald MacIntyre

This is a Royal Navy destroyer captain’s personal account of the grim struggle against the German U-Boats in World War II as they attacked the Allied convoys in the North Atlantic. It tells of his four-year struggle through the blockade and his capture of Germany’s greatest U-Boat commander.

 

 

Canadian Squadrons in Coastal Command by Andrew Henrie

During World War II, Canadian squadrons flew hundreds of operations over the North Atlantic, the English Channel, the North Sea, and the Bay of Biscay.

 

 

 

Canadian Wing Commanders by George A. Brown

Recounts the achievements of 24  Canadian airmen in WW II. Relies upon over six years of research into squadron operational diaries, combat reports, decoration citations, log books and other official documents.

 

 

Junior fiction

I survived the Nazi invasion by Lauren Tashis

One of the darkest periods in history…

In a Jewish ghetto, Max Rosen and his sister Zena struggle to live after their father is taken away by the Nazis. With barely enough food to survive, the siblings make a daring escape from Nazi soldiers into the nearby forest.Max and Zena are brought to a safe camp by Jewish resistance fighters. But soon, bombs are falling all around them. Can Max and Zena survive the fallout of the Nazi invasion?

Refugee by Alan Gratz

A tour de force from acclaimed author Alan Gratz (Prisoner B-3087), this timely — and timeless — novel tells the powerful story of three different children seeking refuge.

A New York Times bestseller!JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world . . .ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America . . .MAHMOUD is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Infiltrate. Befriend. Sabotage.
World War II is raging. Michael O’Shaunessey, originally from Ireland, now lives in Nazi Germany with his parents. Like the other boys in his school, Michael is a member of the Hitler Youth.
But Michael has a secret. He and his parents are spies.
Michael despises everything the Nazis stand for. But he joins in the Hitler Youth’s horrific games and book burnings, playing the part so he can gain insider knowledge.
When Michael learns about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi war mission, things get even more complicated. He must prove his loyalty to the Hitler Youth at all costs — even if it means risking everything he cares about.
Including… his own life.

Children’s Picture books

The Eleventh Hour by Jacques Goldstyn

Jim and Jules are childhood friends, born on the same day in the same village. All their lives, Jim has been first — born two minutes before Jules, always faster, always stronger. When the First World War breaks out in Europe, the two young men enlist in the fight with 30,000 other Canadians.

On the Front, conditions aren’t epic and glorious but muddy and barbaric. Here, too, Jim is the first to attack. Jules is always two minutes behind: lagging in drills, missing the boat, handed chores instead of honors. On November 11, 1918, Jim and Jules are sent out to fight one last time. Jim, always first over the top of the trench, is shot and dies at 10:58am, two minutes before the Armistice takes effect at 11:00am.

Illustrated by political cartoonist and Letters to a Prisoner author Jacques Goldstyn and inspired by true events, this picture book is a simple, poignant, thought-provoking story to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice in 2018.

The Road to Afghanistan by Linda Granfield

A moving tribute to all the soldiers who have served with the Canadian Forces.

A young soldier just returned from Afghanistan has many memories: the beauty of the mountains and wildflowers, the colours of land and sky . . . but also the tragedy that war has brought to that ravaged country and those who fought there.

Memories shift to another soldier in the family ― great-grandfather’s years in the trenches during WWI, and then grandfather’s tour of duty during WWII. The young soldier also remembers those who did not return alive, but travelled home along the Highway of Heroes, honoured by silent observers.

In this timely new book aimed at a younger audience than most, award-winning author and noted war historian Linda Granfield delivers a moving and honest portrayal of military service. Complemented by poignant, evocative artwork by acclaimed illustrator Brian Deines, this book is sure to provide insight and to inspire pride in families all across Canada.

Proud as a Peacock,  Brave as a Lion by Jane Barclay

Much has been written about war and remembrance, but very little of it has been for young children. As questions come from a young grandchild, his grandpa talks about how, as a very young man, he was as proud as a peacock in uniform, busy as a beaver on his Atlantic crossing, and brave as a lion charging into battle. Soon, the old man’s room is filled with an imaginary menagerie as the child thinks about different aspects of wartime. But as he pins medals on his grandpa’s blazer and receives his own red poppy in return, the mood becomes more somber.

Outside, the crowd gathered for the veterans’ parade grows as quiet as a mouse, while men and women — old and young — march past in the rain. A trumpet plays and Grandpa lays a wreath in memory of his lost friend. Just then, the child imagines an elephant in the mist. “Elephants never forget,” he whispers to his grandpa. “Then let’s be elephants,” says the old man, as he wipes water from his eyes and takes his grandson’s hand.

Children’s Non Fiction

The World War 2 Experience, Capstone Press

There is no better way to understand World War II than to put yourself in the middle of the action. This collection of 3 You Choose books takes you from the Attack on Pearl Harbor to the battlefields of Europe, and the struggles and challenges of the homefront. With more than 140 choice and 64 possible endings, The World War II Experience will immerse you in the drama and action of World War II while providing greater understanding of this world changing event.

 

Anne Frank Beyond the Diary by Ruud Van Der Rol

Anne Frank lived a life filled with the enthusiasms and hopes shared by many young women coming into adulthood.  But the times Anne lived in and wrote of in her diary made her simple life extraordinary.  In over one hundred photographs, many which have never been published, this poignant memoir brings to life the harrowing story of one young Jewish woman’s struggle to survive during a period of history which must never be forgotten.

Horrible Histories First World War by Terry Deary

Discover all the foul facts about the Frightful First World War on audio, narrated by Terry Deary. Find out including what the ‘Fat King’ did with food scraps and dead horses, how sniffing your own pee could save your life in a gas attack and why a pair of old socks gave away top German secrets.

It came from the Library…Halloween virtual book display

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Looking for a book to get into the spirit of the spooky season? Then we’ve got you covered! Witch book will put a spell on you? There’s no bones about it, but these are some good books!

This list has been split into Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction and Children’s Books and is only a small selection of books in our collection that are spooky, creepy or scary and therefore perfect for Halloween. So if you don’t see anything to interest you on this list, drop into the library or give us a call or email for more book recommendations! All titles are available either in print at the library or through Libby/Overdrive. Click on the title to place a hold! Need help accessing Libby from your computer or mobile device? Email us at info@stirlinglibrary.com or call us at (613)395-2837 and a staff member will be happy to help. Need a library card? Contact us and we can set one up for you!

Adult Fiction

Breed by Chase Novak

Alex and Leslie Twisden lead charmed lives-fabulous jobs, a luxurious town house on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a passionate marriage. What they don’t have is a child, and as they try one infertility treatment after the next, yearning turns into obsession. As a last-ditch attempt to make their dream of parenthood come true, Alex and Leslie travel deep into Slovenia, where they submit to a painful and terrifying procedure that finally gives them what they so fervently desire . . . but with awful consequences.

Ten years later, cosseted and adored but living in a house of secrets, the twins Adam and Alice find themselves locked into their rooms every night, with sounds coming from their parents’ bedroom getting progressively louder, more violent, and more disturbing.

Driven to a desperate search for answers, Adam and Alice set out on a quest to learn the true nature of the man and woman who raised them. Their discovery will upend everything they thought they knew about their parents and will reveal a threat so horrible that it must be escaped, at any cost.

The Troop by Nick Cutter

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected

intruder stumbles upon their campsite—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. A horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival with no escape from the elements, the infected…or one another.

Night film by Marisha Pessl

On a damp October night, the body of young, beautiful Ashley Cordova is found in an

abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. By all appearances her death is a suicide–but investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. Though much has been written about the dark and unsettling films of Ashley’s father, Stanislas Cordova, very little is known about the man himself. As McGrath pieces together the mystery of Ashley’s death, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of New York City and the twisted world of Stanislas Cordova, and he begins to wonder–is he the next victim? In this novel, the dazzlingly inventive writer Marisha Pessl offers a breathtaking mystery that will hold you in suspense until the last page is turned.

The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli

From the moment he saw the girl in the snowstorm, Flynn had less than an hour to live. But he’ll remember his last fifty minutes long after he’s dead. As an investigator for Suffolk County Child Protective Services, Flynn has seen more than his share of misery, but nothing could prepare him for the nightmare inside the Shepards’ million-dollar Long Island home. In less than an hour, that nightmare will send him plunging into a frozen harbor—and awaken him to a reality even more terrifying.

 

Nocturnes by John Connolly

Connolly’s collection of supernatural novellas and stories echoes the work of some of the masters of the genre while never losing his own distinctive voice. In “The New Daughter,” a father comes to suspect that a burial mound on his land hides something very ancient, and very much alive; in “The Underbury Witches,” two London detectives find themselves battling a particularly female evil in a town culled of its menfolk. And finally, private detective Charlie Parker returns in the long novella “The Reflecting Eye,” in which the photograph of an unknown girl turns up in the mailbox of an abandoned house once occupied by an infamous killer. This discovery forces Parker to confront the possibility that the house is not as empty as it appears, and that something has been waiting in the darkness for its chance to kill again.

Adult Non-Fiction

Ghost stories by Val Clery 

‘From many sources, some traditional, some tales told by friends and strangers encountered in his travels, Val Clery has shaped this powerful collection of stories about an aspect of life in Canada that only a few have experienced and that no one should wish to.

 

 

 

Cannibalism by Bill Schutt

For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism–the role it plays in evolution as well as human history–is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we’ve come to accept as fact.

 Ghost stories by John Robert 

A collection of more than seventy-five true stories of events and experiences with ghosts and spirits from across Canada over the last two centuries.

 

 

 

Zombies by Zachary Graves

Inspired by horror films of the past, such as George Romero’s 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead, zombies have come lurching back into the forefront of the public imagination with books such as the Jane Austen parody Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, video games such as Left 4 Dead and blockbuster movies like Zombieland. The living dead have never been so popular! We all know that zombies are by no means a modern phenomenon but where did this zombie fascination come from, and where did people like Romero get their inspiration? The earliest citation on zombies stems from the Afro-Caribbean belief system / religion of voodoo, which is a culmination of African religions such as loa together with the Catholicism of the European settlers. Voodoo is extremely popular on the West-Indian island of Haiti, and there are records of ‘real’ zombies having existed. Haitians believe that zombies were once normal people who have undergone zombification by a sorcerer’s spell or potion. The victim then dies and becomes a mindless automaton, incapable of remembering the past, unable to recognise loved ones and doomed to a life of miserable toil under the will of the zombie master. Zombies takes a look at all aspects of this gruesome entity and delves into the lesswell-known mythological and historical side of this fascinating subject.

Halloween by Nicholas Rogers

Boasting a rich, complex history rooted in Celtic and Christian ritual, Halloween has evolved from ethnic celebration to a blend of street festival, fright night, and vast commercial enterprise. In this colorful history, Nicholas Rogers takes a lively, entertaining look at the cultural origins and development of one of the most popular holidays of the year.

Children’s Books

The Itsy Bitsy Pumpkin by Sarah Fry

A little pumpkin is trying to find his way back home! And with a little help from a friendly witch, he is soon safe and sound, back on his porch—where there are no spiders to be seen! Little ones will love this fresh fall spin on a classic nursery rhyme!

 

Mousekin’s Golden House by Edna Miller

A white foot mouse makes a home for the winter in a jack-o’-lantern discarded after Halloween.

 

 

 

Five little pumpkins by Ben Mantle

Count with the pumpkins from one to five as they each experience the fun and spookiness of Halloween night!

 

 

Mercer Mayer It’s time to go trick-or-treating with Little Critter and friends!

Celebrate Halloween with Little Critter. Children ages 3 to 7 will love this adorable Halloween storybook

 

 

Harold & Chester Scared Silly by James Howe

Bunnicula, the fang-toothed bunny, and his buddies are up to some new tricks in this high-spirited picture book adventure about a Howl-o’-ween night fright. Full-color illustrations.

 

 

Oddly Normal by Otis Frampton

Meet Oddly Normal, a ten-year-old girl with pointed ears and green hair—a half-witch who will be the first to tell you that having a mother from a magical land called Fignation and a father from Earth doesn’t make it easy to make friends at school! On her tenth birthday, she blows out her cake’s candles and makes a disastrous wish. Now, Oddly must travel to Fignation to uncover the mystery of her parents’ disappearance.

 

 

Haunted Canada by Pat Hancock

A collection of true ghost stories, widely representing Canada all across our country. Ghosts witnessed in the grand old hotels and theatres of Winnipeg, lake spectors, sea vessels, lights along train tracks, legends on hills, and amidst the snow.

 

 

 

Can you survive a Zombie apocalypse by Max Bralier

A wailing moan. A stumbling walk. A horrid stench. You never thought it could happen, but zombies walk the streets with an unending hunger for flesh. With a single bite or scratch, you’ll become one of the undead monsters. When YOU CHOOSE what to do next in this eBook, will you be able to survive the zombie hordes?

 

 

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

Heather is such a whiny little brat. Always getting Michael and me into trouble. But since our mother married her father, we’re stuck with her…our “poor stepsister” who lost her real mother in a mysterious fire.

But now something terrible has happened. Heather has found a new friend, out in the graveyard behind our home — a girl named Helen who died with her family in a mysterious fire over a hundred years ago. Now her ghost returns to lure children into the pond…to drown! I don’t want to believe in ghosts, but I’ve followed Heather into the graveyard and watch her talk to Helen. And I’m terrified. Not for myself, but for Heather…

 

More Ghost Stories chose by Aidan Chambers

Including masterpieces such as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Agatha Christie’s “The Lamp,” this eerie anthology of fifteen stories is not for the faint of heart.

Celebrate your Freedom to Read! Read a Banned Book…virtual book display

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Libraries promote open access to all ideas, regardless of controversy. Banned books often deal with difficult subject matter or present different viewpoints and perspectives to relevant and timely situations. Exploring complex subjects allows you to build empathy for people unlike yourself. Reading banned books start a conversation. They are a learning experience that can help you and your kids define their own values and opinions. Limiting access to ideas hurts everyone and that is why you should celebrate your freedom to read and read a banned book! This list has been split into Adult Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Junior Fiction and Picture Books and is only a small selection of books in our collection that have been banned or challenged over the years.

If you would like any further book recommendations give us a call or email! All titles are available in print at the library or through Libby/Overdrive. Click on the title to place a hold! Need help accessing Libby from your computer or mobile device? Email us at info@stirlinglibrary.com or call us at (613)395-2837 and a staff member will be happy to help. Need a library card? Contact us and we can set one up for you!

Adult Fiction

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its 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 is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant, is a Hazara – a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

Reason: Sexual violence, thought to promote Islam, 2014, 2017

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

Reason: Violence and use of racial slurs, 2017

 

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

This is the story of Offred, one of the unfortunate “Handmaids” under the new social order who have only one purpose: to breed. In Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships, Offred’ s persistent memories of life in the “time before” and her will to survive are acts of rebellion. Provocative, startling, prophetic, and with Margaret Atwood’s devastating irony, wit, and acute perceptive powers in full force, The Handmaid’s Tale is at once a mordant satire and a dire warning.

Reason: Profanity, vulgarity and sexual overtones

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

An unlikely pair, George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California during the Great Depression, grasp for their American Dream. Labourers in California’s dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations, nor predict the consequences of Lennie’s unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.

Reason: Profanity, violence, racial slurs

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

The story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight. Two Indian actors of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. This is just the initial act in a magnificent odyssey that seamlessly merges the actual with the imagined. A book whose importance is eclipsed only by its quality, The Satanic Verses is a key work of our times.

Reason: Blasphemous to Islam

 

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies.  But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder.  In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man’s guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries–memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo’s wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched.

Reason: Sexual content, profanity

Young Adult Fiction

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Reason: Drug use, profanity, offensive language, 2017

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

Reason: Addressing teen suicide

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .

After. Nothing is ever the same.

Reason: Sexually explicit which may lead to sexual experimentation

Junior Fiction

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school’s production of Moon over Mississippi, she can’t really sing. Instead she’s the set designer for the drama department’s stage crew, and this year she’s determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn’t know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen. And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!

Reason: LGBT characters, 2014, 2016, 2017

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie’s house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs. It will take the love of his family and the strength that Leslie has given him for Jess to be able to deal with his grief.

Reason: References to witchcraft, atheism and profanity

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

A Light in the Attic delights with remarkable characters and hilariously profound poems in a collection readers will return to again and again.

Here in the attic you will find Backward Bill, Sour Face Ann, the Meehoo with an Exactlywatt, and the Polar Bear in the Frigidaire. You will talk with Broiled Face, and find out what happens when Somebody steals your knees, you get caught by the Quick-Digesting Gink, a Mountain snores, and They Put a Brassiere on the Camel.

Come on up to the attic of Shel Silverstein and let the light bring you home.

Reason: Encourages children to be disobedient

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was a champion of the underdog and all things little—in this case, an orphaned boy oppressed by two nasty, self-centered aunts. How James escapes his miserable life with the horrible aunts and becomes a hero is a Dahlicious fantasy of the highest order. You will never forget resourceful little James and his new family of magically overgrown insects—a ladybug, a spider, a grasshopper, a glowworm, a silkworm, and the chronic complainer, a centipede with a hundred gorgeous shoes. Their adventures aboard a luscious peach as large as a house take them across the Atlantic Ocean, through waters infested with peach-eating sharks and skies inhabited by malevolent Cloudmen, to a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

Reason: Being too scary, encourages disobedience, references to tobacco and alcohol

Picture Books

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

Ferdinand is the world’s most peaceful–and–beloved little bull. While all of the other bulls snort, leap, and butt their heads, Ferdinand is content to just sit and smell the flowers under his favorite cork tree. Leaf’s simple storytelling paired with Lawson’s pen-and-ink drawings make The Story of Ferdinand a true classic.

Reason: For promoting a pacifist agenda

The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake

After he finds a tumbleweed in his chaps and the numerous bugs buzzing around him affect his hearing, the cowboy decides it’s time to head to the river. Once there, he peels off all his clothes and tells his trusty old dog to guard them against strangers. He takes a refreshing bath and emerges clean as corn – but so fresh-smelling that his dog doesn’t recognize him! Negotiations over the return of the clothes prove fruitless. A wrestling match ensues in a tale that grows taller by the sentence, climaxing in a fabric-speckled dust devil.

Amy Timberlake has inserted a Western twang into this tale of filth and friendship, and Adam Rex has found many creative means of bodily concealment in his expressive, comical paintings.

Reason: “Nudity,” 2012

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

In a great green room, tucked away in bed, is a little bunny. “Goodnight room, goodnight moon.” And to all the familiar things in the softly lit room—to the picture of the three little bears sitting on chairs, to the clocks and his socks, to the mittens and the kittens, to everything one by one—the little bunny says goodnight.

In this classic of children’s literature, beloved by generations of readers and listeners, the quiet poetry of the words and the gentle, lulling illustrations combine to make a perfect book for the end of the day.

Reason: Changed illustrations to remove a cigarette and ashtray, 2005

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

Hop on Pop is a 1963 children’s picture book by Dr. Seuss. It was published as part of the Random House Beginner Books series, and is subtitled “The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use”. It contains several short poems about a variety of characters, and is designed to introduce basic phonics concepts to children.

Reason: “For inciting violence” 2004

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? by Bill Martin Jr.

A big happy frog, a plump purple cat, a handsome blue horse, and a soft yellow duck–all parade across the pages of this delightful book. Children will immediately respond to Eric Carle’s flat, boldly colored collages. Combined with Bill Martin’s singsong text, they create unforgettable images of these endearing animals.

Reason: Author confused with philosopher Bill Martin who wrote Ethical Marxism, 2010