Banned Book Week Fun
The 2021 list includes:
1. Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe. Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images.
2. Lawn Boy, by Jonathan Evison. Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.
3. All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M. Johnson. Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.
4. Out of Darkness, by Ashley Hope Perez. Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.
5. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas. Banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda.
6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and use of a derogatory term.
7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Jesse Andrews. Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women.
8. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison. Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit.
9. This Book is Gay, by Juno Dawson. Banned, challenged, relocated, and restricted for providing sexual education and LGBTQIA+ content.
10. Beyond Magenta, by Susan Kuklin. Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.
Banned Book Titles Currently on Display
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and four-color interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.
Speak
The first ten lies they tell you in high school.
"Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.
The Joy Luck Club
In 1949 four Chinese women-drawn together by the shadow of their past-begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club.
Nearly forty years later, one of the members has died, and her daughter has come to take her place, only to learn of her mother's lifelong wish—and the tragic way in which it has come true. The revelation of this secret unleashes an urgent need among the women to reach back and remember...
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial inequities. In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.
Beyond Magenta
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.
The Hate U Give
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.