This week is apparently Banned Books Weeks and this year, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (pretty much the point of books in MY opinion) released the top 11 books so far calculated as the most banned in 2018. (1) (2)
George by Alex Gino*
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller*
Captain Underpants series, written and illustrated by Dan Pilkey*
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Drama, written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier*
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Skippyjon Jones series, written and illustrated by Judy Schachner
The Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman, illustrated by Kristyna Litten*
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan*
It’s important to note that six of the eleven books (asterisked above) were challenged or banned because of LGBTQIA+ content. As books are meant to open your mind and bring you connection, the hateful reasons behind banning books remind us why PRIDE and representation are so important. This is especially true when looking at the statistics from the Trevor Project, that have found that LGB youth contemplate suicide 3x the rate of heterosexual youth and are 5x as likely to attempt. (3)
Going more off the serious side I cannot understand how a same-sex couple was the only reason listed as people’s issue with Captain Underpants. Seriously? I always thought they were stupid so I stopped trying to read them after a few but with everything else I remember finding (now the word I would use) distasteful, it was not any non-heterosexual relationships. What complete horsecrap.
(1) https://bannedbooksweek.org/11-challenged-and-banned-books/
(2) https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/22/us/banned-books-week-2019-trnd/index.html
(3) https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/preventing-suicide/facts-about-suicide/