Intellectual Freedom, the Right to Read and Barbie's Favorite Banned Books
The Lyrasis mission is to create and support equitable access to the world’s knowledge. Thank you to all the members of our community, be they librarians, archivists, curators, researchers, faculty, staff, readers, citizens, neighbors and helpers who believe that books should be protected, not banned.
To support you and your communities, Lyrasis is proud to actively work against book bans with our programs and partnerships.
The Palace Project benefits libraries and their communities with a robust suite of content, tools and services for the delivery of ebooks, audiobooks and other digital media, built by and for librarians with a nonprofit, open source foundation.
Lyrasis is also a proud strategic partner with DPLA’s Banned Book Club, which uses the Palace Project platform and e-reader app to make ebook versions of banned books available to readers in locations across the United States where titles have been banned.
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (available to read free in the Palace app)*
- In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Pink is for Boys by Robb Pearlman and Eda Kaban
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (available to read free in the Palace app)*
- My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
- Horse by Juliet Clutton-Brock
- All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
- The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
* To access this book and more, simply download The Palace Project app today from your app store. If your local library is already set up, you will be able to browse and enjoy their collection. If not, you can still download and enjoy more than 10,000 titles from the Palace Bookshelf, including To the Lighthouse, Black Beauty and more classic banned books. These are titles that are open and DRM free, courtesy of DPLA, and they are included free of charge for all Palace libraries.
Read the Rainbow with Colorful, Diverse Banned Books
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- How (Not) to Invite a Boy to Prom by S.J. Goslee
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Brand New School, Brave New Ruby by Derrick Barnes
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
- Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
These books and more important frequently banned titles are available for free via The Banned Book Club through the Palace ereader, a nonprofit app available for download via iOS and Android. The Banned Book Club is a project of the Digital Public Library of America, DPLA, and is proudly powered by The Palace Project and Lyrasis.
About DPLA's Banned Book Club
In locations where books have been banned, The Banned Book Club offers free access to those books through the free Palace e-reader app. To get started, follow these four easy steps:
- Download the free Palace Project app for iOS or Android
- Open the app and select “Banned Book Club”
- Browse the catalog and select a title you would like to read by tapping the title and clicking “Get”
- Sign up for your own virtual library card by clicking on “Create Card” and walking through the steps