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Ban This Book

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2017 children's novel by Alan Gratz

Ban This Book
AuthorAlan Gratz
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's fiction
PublishedAugust 29, 2017
PublisherTor/Starscape
Publication placeUnited States
Pages256
ISBN978-0-7653-8556-7

Ban This Book is a 2017 children's novel by Alan Gratz. Inspired by a viral Internet story from the mid-2010s, it tells of an African-American North Carolina girl student's fight against book censorship. Published in 2017 to positive reviews, it became the subject of its own May 2024 ban in a Florida school district.

Synopsis

Amy Anne Ollinger, a fourth-grade African-American North Carolina student, visits her school library to borrow her favorite book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a novel by E. L. Konigsburg. The librarian, Mrs. Jones, tells her she cannot because the school's PTA president banned it at the behest of a classmate's parent. In response to the ban and similar others, she creates the "Banned Books Locker Library", but its discovery leads to her suspension and the firing of Mrs. Jones. The incident inspires Ollinger and fellow students—including the PTA president's son—to crusade against book censorship. Dav Pilkey also makes an in-story cameo.

Development

A viral Internet tale of a Catholic high-school girl who ran a library of banned books from her locker inspired the storyline of Ban This Book. Although the story was later revealed to be a hoax, Alan Gratz kept the idea around and worked on the story for several years.

Reception

Ban This Book received positive reviews upon its original August 2017 publication; Booklist's Jennifer Barnes and School Library Journal contributor Laurie Slagenwhite Walters recommended it for middle-grade collections. Barnes called it " inspiring story about 'good trouble' that's worth the consequences." Publishers Weekly said that "Gratz delivers a book lover's book that speaks volumes about kids' power to effect change at a grassroots level." The staff at Kirkus Reviews noted the references to real library-challenged titles, and found it "Contrived at some points, polemic at others, but a stout defense of the right to read." The School Library Journal staff later included it in a 2022 list of titles revolving around book censorship.

Censorship

In May 2024, the school district of Florida's Indian River County banned the book in a 3–2 vote after a challenge from a member of the conservative group Moms for Liberty, a move Gratz had anticipated in 2017; their vote "overrul its own district book-review committee's decision to keep it." The challenger—who had previously made similar filings for at least 140 other titles in its library—accused the book for supposed sexual content, while a district board member called it "a liberal Marxist propaganda piece"; both points were dismissed by Gratz and other district personnel. Gratz told the Tallahassee Democrat the following month that the same themes discussed in the story led to its ban, which he felt was "incredibly ironic". "It feels like they know exactly what they're doing and they're somewhat ashamed of what they're doing," he said, "and they don't want a book on the shelves that calls them out." He also commented on similar recent efforts to remove material containing LGBTQIA+ themes and people of color.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Review: 'Ban This Book'". Kirkus Reviews. Vol. 85, no. 12. June 15, 2017. ISSN 1948-7428. ProQuest 1908336851. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  2. ^ Barnes, Jennifer (August 2017). "Review: 'Ban This Book'". Booklist. Vol. 113, no. 22. p. 61. ISSN 0006-7385. Retrieved June 16, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  3. ^ Salam, Erum (June 11, 2024). "Book about book bans banned by Florida school board". The Guardian. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  4. ^ "Children's Reviews: 'Ban This Book'". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 264, no. 24. June 12, 2017. ISSN 0000-0019. Retrieved June 16, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  5. ^ Slagenwhite Walters, Laurie (September 2017). "Xpress Reviews: 'Ban This Book'". School Library Journal. Vol. 63, no. 9. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved June 16, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ Scales, Pat (September 2017). "Talking with Alan Gratz". Booklist's Book Links. Vol. 27, no. 1. pp. 29–31. ISSN 0006-7385. Retrieved June 16, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  7. "Centering Censorship: Children's and YA Titles with Timely Themes". School Library Journal. Vol. 68, no. 9. September 2022. p. 17. ISSN 0362-8930. Retrieved June 20, 2024 – via ProQuest.
  8. ^ Soule, Douglas (June 13, 2024). "Florida School Board bans a book about banning books". Tallahassee Democrat. Retrieved June 20, 2024 – via ProQuest.

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