1961 Pulitzer Prize Winner Ranked Number One 'Best Banned or Censored' Book
"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
In 1960 the literary world was rocked and forever changed when Monroeville, Alabama native Harper Lee published her first novel, the Southern Gothic To Kill a Mockingbird. The book was an instant success met with raving, critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction a year after its publication. Lee's first novel-and only one published while the author was still alive-is a classic in American literature.
Despite meeting the aforementioned acclaim, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most challenged, banned, and censored books in modern history. The book's use of racial slurs, profanity, and blunt depictions and discussions of sexual assault have led people to challenge its appropriateness being placed in libraries and classrooms and around young readers. The frequency at which the book has challenged combined with its notoriety landed it in the number one spot for the Goodreads list of "Best Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books."
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Set in 1930s Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age novel narrated by young Scout Finch, whose father, Atticus, is a lawyer appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Through the youthful eyes of Scout and her brother, Jem, the trial uncovers the deep, racial prejudices in their community, and exposes them to a new way of looking at their community and the world around them.
To date, To Kill a Mockingbird has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide since its publication 66 years ago. The novel has been translated into over 40 languages and continues to sell between 750,000 and 1 million copies on an annual basis. In addition to the Pulitzer, Lee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, and PBS named the novel America's Favorite Book.
Good reading challenges you, and no one is too young to read something that can leave an impact on their worldview. Despite the pursuits to ban the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird has withstood the test of time and continues to leave an mark decade after decade, read after read.
Related: This 66-Year-Old Book Is No. 1 on Goodreads' List of ‘Books That Everyone Should Read Once'
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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 3:25 AM.