Graphic that shows a collage of banned or challenged books, like "The Color Purple" "Gender Queer" "Native Son" "James and the Giant Peach" and more.

Campaigns & Initiatives

Banned Books Club

Last updated on July 01, 2026

As book challenges and classroom censorship bills spread across the country, we’re fighting back in courts, statehouses, communities, and schools and now with our book club, too.

We have a First Amendment Right to read and learn free from censorship and discrimination—and the ACLU is committed to defending that right.

What does it mean to be in the ACLU of North Dakota Banned Books Club?

Any individuals or groups who want to join our Banned Books Club can do so by requesting to join our Facebook group. Each month, we select a title from lists that include:

Most Feared Books in North Dakota: This is a list curated by the ACLU of North Dakota of books formally challenged or banned across the state. The list also includes titles that have been notably identified by lawmakers or citizen activists but may not have faced official challenges.

PEN America’s Banned in the USA lists

ALA’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books list and their archives

On the group's page, we'll post discussion questions to provide opportunities for engagement, whether that's within your own book club or on the page's discussion board. If your book club selects one of the Banned Book Club selections, let us know. We'd love to hear how the discussion goes.

NOTICE

Our Banned Books Club group will only host meaningful and respectful dialogue. We will not tolerate profanity, hate speech, personal attacks, or threats among our group members, and we reserve the right to remove an individual from the group.

July Selection

Despite being challenged in some schools and libraries for its language, violence, and portrayal of disability, Of Mice and Men continues to be regarded as a significant work of American literature. Many readers argue that these elements are essential to the novel's realistic portrayal of life during the Great Depression and should be understood in their historical and literary context rather than used as grounds for censorship.

The novel follows George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant workers who travel together in search of steady work while sharing a dream of owning a small farm. They find jobs on a California ranch, where they encounter a diverse group of people, each struggling with loneliness, hardship, and their own hopes for the future. As tensions grow and circumstances become more complicated, George and Lennie's dream is tested in unexpected ways.

Through its memorable characters and emotional storytelling, Of Mice and Men explores themes of friendship, isolation, responsibility, and the pursuit of the American Dream. Its lasting impact comes from the questions it raises about compassion, human dignity, and the challenges people face when trying to build a better life.

Find it on the Libby app

Find it on the Libby app

Past Books of the Month

June Selection

Our pick for Pride Month is All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson!

This memoir-manifesto is a collection of personal essays covering Johnson's childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Through stories about family, friendships, school, relationships, identity, and coming out, Johnson reflects on what it means to navigate race, gender, and sexuality in a society that often imposes narrow expectations on young people.

Find it at your local library via Libby

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

Find it at your local library via Libby

April/May Selection

Our pick for National Arab American Heritage Month is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty.

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 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.

Find it at your local library via Libby

Find it at your local library via Libby

February/March

This one might hit close to home — it's "1984" by George Orwell!

A masterpiece of rebellion and imprisonment where war is peace freedom is slavery and Big Brother is watching. Thought Police, Big Brother, Orwellian - these words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel "1984." The story of one man's Nightmare Odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, "1984" is a prophetic haunting tale. More relevant than ever before, "1984" exposes the worst crimes imaginable the destruction of truth freedom and individuality.

Find it at your local library via Libby

Find it at your local library via Libby

Banned Books Club

What are you waiting for?

We have a First Amendment Right to read and learn free from censorship and discrimination—and the ACLU is committed to defending that right.

What does it mean to be in the ACLU of North Dakota Banned Books Club?

NOTICE

July Selection

What are you waiting for?

Past Books of the Month

June Selection

April/May Selection

February/March

Related Content

North Dakota's Most-Feared Books

‘Quiet’ book bans threaten freedom of expression in North Dakota libraries

Book Bans Are More Than Just Empty Shelves

Protect the First Amendment in Your Community