Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Thank you to everyone who joined the October 2023 discussion of this book, one of the most challenged book in the United States over the last few years. As a follow up to our discussion, here are some resources related to current book ban attempts.
PEN America is currently engaged in litigation related to book bans: Book Bans - PEN America
The American Library Association offers statistics in bans [attempts are up 20% over the last year with data through 8/31/23]: Book Ban Data | Advocacy, Legislation & Issues (ala.org)
There have been 8 ban attempts in Colorado challenging 136 different titles.
The Brooklyn Public Library has a donation effort to support persons under 18 in getting a virtual library card to access restricted titles: Books Unbanned | Brooklyn Public Library (bklynlibrary.org). They also have a podcast mini series titled "Borrowed and Banned" that "tells the story of America's ideological war with its bookshelves."
Top 13 most challenged books of 2022: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
Top 10 books for 21 back to 2001: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10/archive
30 banned books you should probably read right now: https://www.rd.com/list/banned-books/
Scholastic list of banned books: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-tools/book-lists/popular/the-ultimate-list-of-banned-books.html
My call to action: review these lists of challenged/banned books, look in your home (or the library) and select one or more to read with children you know. If you take on this challenge: complete the reading log and return to me via email [amy.petribeard@gmail.com] and I'm happy to send you some free goodies.
Happy reading!
I am so excited to start my reading log. What an incredible Book Club discussion this was and I appreciate this list of resources. I now know how I can get involved!