Here are some suggestions for your 2025 Book Bingo NW category: Censorship. Book Bingo is our annual adult summer reading program presented in partnership with Seattle Arts & Lectures and King County Library System.
This Book Won't Burn
Teen Fiction. After her dad abruptly abandons her family, Noor Khan is forced to start the last quarter of her senior year at a new school and plans to keep her head down until she discovers hundreds of books being removed from the library and speaks up to effect change. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View This Book Won't BurnZodiac
Nonfiction. Chinese artist-activist Weiwei ’s poignant, meditative graphic memoir debut opens as he speaks to his son about the past, and the “powerful men”—such as Mao Zedong—who “made decisions for everybody” during the cultural revolution, including what few books people were allowed to read. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Graphic Novel
Availability: All copies in use
View ZodiacThe Book Censor's Library
Fiction. How dangerous can books really be? When the narrator of Al-Essa’s novel is hired by his unnamed dictatorial government as its new book censor, he doesn’t expect to embark on a twisted, perilous reckoning with the power of literature. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View The Book Censor's LibraryBanned Books
Nonfiction. Explores why some of the world's...literary classics and seminal non-fiction titles were once deemed too controversial for the public to read--whether for challenging racial or sexual norms, satirizing public figures, or simply being deemed unfit for young readers. From the banning of All Quiet on the Western Front and the repeated suppression of On the Origin of Species, to the uproar provoked by Lady Chatterley's Lover, entries offer a chronological account of censorship, and the...role that some banned books have played in changing history. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Banned BooksBanned Together
Teen Nonfiction. A collection of fiction, memoir, poetry, graphic narratives, essays and other genres explores book bans through various lenses and empowers teens to fight back, in an anthology featuring the voices of 15 diverse award-winning authors and illustrators. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Banned TogetherThe Genius of Judy
Nonfiction. A literary biography of Judy Blume argues for her lasting impact. (Kirkus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View The Genius of JudyFahrenheit 451
Fiction. A totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners, Guy Montag, suddenly realizes their merit. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Fahrenheit 451A Stranger in the Citadel
Fiction. Bestseller Buckell explores the consequences of book banning in this atmospheric postapocalyptic sci-fi fantasy. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View A Stranger in the CitadelThe Message
Nonfiction. Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories—our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking—expose and distort our realities. Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths. (NoveList)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The MessageAmerican Comics
Nonfiction. Columbia professor Dauber covers the entire landscape of American comics in this outstanding encyclopedic survey intelligently analyzing how “comics have shaped wars and inspired movements” and even “conquered pop culture.” (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View American Comics