
All Boys Aren't Blue
by George M. Johnson
A Black queer memoir they tried to erase from schools
For you if
you grew up knowing something about yourself that nobody around you named
⚡ Choose Your Route ⚡
Not sold directly on this site. Support indie bookstores with a new copy, or go sustainable with a used one.
Buy New on Bookshop.orgSupports independent bookstores
— OR —
Find Used on Better World BooksSecondhand & sustainable
$15 MSRP · Paperback
Reference price shown. Other editions may be available.
A series of personal essays from journalist George M. Johnson about growing up as a Black queer person in New Jersey — family, identity, and the violence that comes with being visibly yourself.
In effect right now
Somebody decided you shouldn’t read this. Read it this week.
It only works if nobody notices. Get a copy, pass it on, and tell the people who made the call that you did.
A Black queer memoir about growing up — challenged for "sexually explicit content." The actual threat: a book by a Black queer person that treats their sexuality and identity as normal, narrated in their own voice, for young readers who may recognize themselves in it.
The record
South Carolina
Feb 4, 2025
Removed statewide (state law or state board rule) · Every public K–12 school
Public libraries
Initiated by: government or statute
In effect nowLast verified Oct 2, 2026Source ↗
Where This Book Lives
Related Viewing
Shares a topic, theme, or setting with this book in the catalog.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe(2023)
dir. Aitch Alberto
One summer, secrets neither boy knew he had.
In 1987 El Paso, two Mexican-American teenage loners strike up a friendship that cracks open everything one of them has spent years keeping carefully closed off — including who he is. Adapted from Benjamin Alire Sáenz's novel.
Why it’s here: Punk in its tenderness rather than its edge — a bilingual, bicultural, queer coming-of-age story that doesn't need trauma to justify its own gentleness. Pedagogical in showing how friendship can crack open a kid who's spent years protecting himself by staying closed.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress(2002)
dir. Dai Sijie
Banned books, secret readings, and one crush.
Two city students sent to a remote mountain village for Maoist "re-education" during the Cultural Revolution discover a hidden suitcase of banned Western novels — and use them to woo the local tailor's granddaughter. Adapted from Dai Sijie's own novel.
Why it’s here: Punk in treating banned Western novels as genuinely dangerous contraband — literature here isn't decoration, it's the thing state re-education is specifically designed to purge. Pedagogical in showing how forbidden art still gets in, and still changes people, even under total surveillance.
Same event, different angle
The same history — told by someone who saw it differently.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas

Survival instincts don't stop at the Wall.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Blankets
Craig Thompson

The memoir that proved comics could break your heart.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Breathless
Jennifer Niven

A teen girl writes her own story.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack
Richard Ovenden

Knowledge was always the target.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Same pattern, different era
Different time, different place. The same thing keeps happening.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas

Survival instincts don't stop at the Wall.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Blankets
Craig Thompson

The memoir that proved comics could break your heart.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Breathless
Jennifer Niven

A teen girl writes her own story.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Different Seasons
Stephen King

How fascism finds the boy next door.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
For the family bookshelf
Same idea, written for a younger reader. Good for reading together.
Flamer
Mike Curato

A gay Latino teen at camp. Banned for existing.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
And Tango Makes Three
Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Two penguin dads hatch an egg. True story. Banned.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Drama
Raina Telgemeier

A graphic novel about theater, crushes, and who you are
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, Gender, and Sexual Health
Robie H. Harris

The sex ed book America keeps trying to ban.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
