Have you read GENDER QUEER, a graphic novel memoir by Maia Kobabe? It’s about a lot of things you might expect in a memoir, growing up and fitting in, and it’s about Kobabe’s experience of being nonbinary.
Some people think you or your kids and grandkids shouldn’t be able to read GENDER QUEER or the 1500 other books that were challenged or banned last year, according to stats collected by the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom.
But it’s not actually about GENDER QUEER or THE HATE YOU GIVE by Angie Thomas (which has been on the top banned list 4 out of the 5 years since its publication in 2017) or A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J. Maas, which a Virginia judge thinks might not be appropriate to sell unrestricted in bookstores. As librarian Alex Brown wrote recently for Tor.com:
Banning books is always bigger than just the ban or just the book. It’s a concerted effort to whitewash and sugarcoat history, to deny the truth of what happened and who we are as a nation, and to continue the dismantling of our public educational institutions.
And it’s getting worse – along with targeting school libraries at every level and public libraries, an active challenge right now is trying to restrict Barnes & Noble bookstores from selling certain books to kids, and maybe to anyone at all (in Virginia).
[Read more: The American Booksellers for Free Expression statement]
It’s not really about the books. It’s about the people. The kids who are hungry to see themselves and their experiences in the books they read. All of us who want to read widely, adventurously and freely. The authors who are writing their best stories with heart and hard-won wisdom, or maybe just for fun.
This Pride month, pick up a copy of GENDER QUEER, and see what you think. And, if it’s not for you, pick up something else – but champion everyone’s right to read freely.
If you want to do more, check out the ALA’s new campaign, Unite Against Book Bans.
~ Robin, social media manager