#FDL: Read a Banned Book
This week is Banned Books Week. The American Library Association discusses the purpose and history of Banned Books Week here:
“Banned Books Week (September 18-24) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the end of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.”
Despite the efforts of challenges, these materials have, for the most part, remained available to read. So stop by the library or place one of these books on hold to celebrate your freedom to read.
Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2021
The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 729 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2021. Of the 1597 books that were targeted, here are the most challenged, along with the reasons cited for censoring the books:
- Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images - Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit - All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit - Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references and use of a derogatory term - Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women - The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit - This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Reasons: Banned, challenged, relocated, and restricted for providing sexual education and LGBTQIA+ content. - Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.
Lists of more banned or challenged books are available here.
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
FDL Reads: All Boys Aren’t Blue
All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson
Reviewed By: Alice Mitchell, Youth Services Manager
Genre: Memoir
Suggested Age: Adults & Teens (14+)
What is This Book About? George M. Johnson grew up in New Jersey, without the language to describe his intersecting identities as a queer Black boy. His essays capture what his life was like as a child, teen, and young adult experiencing racism, toxic masculinity, and homophobia in a variety of ways. There are plenty of moments filled with triumph and playfulness, even with how challenging and painful the content could be. His stories span a street fight at five, going to flea markets with his grandmother, experiencing first love, and attending an historically Black college. Despite the fact that his queer and Black identities don’t always mesh perfectly, Johnson comes to the realization that he is a complete person who doesn’t have to compromise his identities to define himself.
My Review: From the introduction I knew that this book would be a personally challenging book to read, but I love reading books about people different from myself and I really appreciated this opportunity. Johnson wrote about the ups and downs of his life in a conversational way that was really easy to connect to, despite our completely different experiences growing up. It felt like I was listening to a real person instead of simply reading a book.
I specifically read this book in celebration of Banned Books Week as people across the country have challenged its presence in school and public libraries because they say its content is inappropriate and too mature for teenagers. This frustrates me, as Johnson was a child and teenager during these experiences, and there are teenagers across this country who can see their experiences reflected in this book. To silence this book is to silence teens across the country who can relate to Johnson, and ban other people from the chance to learn from his life. This book should be taken as both a message to be yourself, and as a call to action for people outside of queer and Black identities to help transform the world to make it a safer, happier place for everyone.
Three Words that Describe this Book: realistic, honest, important
Give This A Try if You Like… Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin, You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson, Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Rating: 5/5
Banned Books Week 2022
Every September, FDL joins the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the county in celebrating Banned Books Week.
Banned Books Week, September 18-24, celebrates the freedom to read, and brings awareness to the current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools and the harms of censorship. ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has already recorded 681 attempts to ban or restrict library resources in schools, universities, and public libraries, seeking to remove or restrict 1651 different titles so far in 2022, putting it track to reach the highest numbers since recording began more than 20 years ago.
“Banned books” have not been banned by law, but have been challenged in an attempt to remove them from a collection or from distribution. When a book is challenged, it means an individual or group is trying to restrict access for other people, usually because they find the material personally offensive.
Chances are, a book that you love has been challenged at some point. (At least 46 of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the targets of ban attempts, including classics like Lord of the Rings, Brave New World, Where the Wild Things Are, The Bible, etc.)
A common reason given for challenging a book is that it is “unsuited/inappropriate for an age group.” Only parents or guardians have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources.
Currently, the majority of books being challenged contain diverse content, meaning they’re written by or about people of color, LGBTQ people, and/or people with disabilities. We believe that representation matters, and our collection reflects the diversity within our community.
FDL supports intellectual freedom. Inclusion of a controversial item in the collection does not constitute library endorsement or approval of an expressed opinion.
Books and stories unite us. Censorship divides us.
Please join us in reading a banned or challenged book this week, and support everyone’s right to read what they choose! Learn more at bannedbooksweek.org!
#FDL: A Variety of Mysteries-September Giveaway
A Variety of Mysteries – September Giveaway
From a suspenseful hunt for a killer to a more casual “whodunit,” mysteries encompass a diverse assortment of stories. You can be drawn into an emotional roller coaster or be entertained by a whimsical conundrum. Here are four recent and upcoming releases to enjoy that cover the breadth of the genre.
Sinister Graves by Marcie R. Rendon
Set in 1970s Minnesota on the White Earth Reservation, Pinckley Prize–winner Marcie R. Rendon’s gripping new mystery follows Cash Blackbear, a young Ojibwe woman, as she attempts to discover the truth about the disappearances of Native girls and their newborns.
A snowmelt has sent floodwaters down to the fields of the Red River Valley, dragging the body of an unidentified Native woman into the town of Ada. The only evidence the medical examiner recovers is a torn piece of paper inside her bra: a hymnal written in English and Ojibwe.
Cash Blackbear, a 19-year-old Ojibwe woman, sometimes helps Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian, on his investigations. Now she knows her search for justice for this anonymous victim will take her to the White Earth Reservation, a place she once called home.
When Cash happens upon two small graves in the yard of a rural, “speak-in-tongues kinda church,” Cash is pulled into the lives of the malevolent pastor and his troubled wife while yet another Native woman dies in a mysterious manner.
Murder at the Porte de Versailles by Cara Black
November 2001: in the wake of 9/11, Paris is living in a state of heightened fear, with constant bomb alerts and ethnic tension high. For Aimée Leduc, November is bittersweet: the anniversary of her father’s death and her daughter’s third birthday fall on the same day. A gathering for family and friends is disrupted when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory—and Boris Viard, the partner of Aimée’s friend Michou, is found unconscious at the scene of the crime, his fingerprints on the bomb fragments.
Aimée doesn’t believe Boris set the bomb. In an effort to prove him not guilty, she battles the police and his own lab colleagues, collecting conflicting eyewitness reports. When a member of the French secret service drafts Aimée to help investigate possible links to an Iranian Revolutionary guard and fugitive radicals who bombed Interpol in the 1980s, Aimée uncovers ties to a cold case of her father’s. As Aimée scours the streets of Teheran-sur-Seine trying to learn the truth, she has to ask herself if she should succumb to pressure from Chloe’s biological father and move them out to his farm in Brittany. But could Aimée Leduc ever leave Paris?
Cara Black’s riveting 20th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series entangles private investigator Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, postcolonial Franco-African politics, and terrorist threats in Paris’s 15th arrondissement.
Death on a Winter Stroll by Francine Mathews
Nantucket Police Chief Meredith Folger is acutely conscious of the stress COVID-19 has placed on the community she loves. Although the island has proved a refuge for many during the pandemic, the cost to Nantucket has been high. Merry hopes that the Christmas Stroll, one of Nantucket’s favorite traditions, in which Main Street is transformed into a winter wonderland, will lift the island’s spirits. But the arrival of a large-scale TV production, and the Secretary of State and her family, complicates matters significantly.
The TV shoot is plagued with problems from within, as a shady, power-hungry producer clashes with strong-willed actors. Across Nantucket, the Secretary’s troubled stepson keeps shaking off his security detail to visit a dilapidated house near conservation land, where an intriguing recluse guards secrets of her own. With all parties overly conscious of spending too much time in the public eye and secrets swirling around both camps, it is difficult to parse what behavior is suspicious or not—until the bodies turn up.
Now, it’s up to Merry and Detective Howie Seitz to find a connection between two seemingly unconnected murders and catch the killer. But when everyone has a motive, and half of the suspects are politicians and actors, how can Merry and Howie tell fact from fiction?
Fifty-Four Pigs by Philipp Schott
For readers of Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, comes a lighthearted mystery with an incredible sense of place.
A swine barn explodes near a lakeside Manitoba town, putting veterinarian Dr. Peter Bannerman on a collision course with murder and a startling conspiracy. Peter is an odd duck, obsessed with logic and measurable facts, an obsession he puts to good use in his veterinary practice. When a murder is connected to the swine barn explosion and his friend Tom becomes the prime suspect, Peter feels compelled to put his reasoning skills, and his dog Pippin’s remarkable nose, to use to help clear him.
The situation darkens with a second murder and a series of break-ins, including at Peter’s house and clinic, but Peter has a hard time knowing when he is out of his depth, despite warnings from his brother-in-law Kevin, an RCMP officer. It becomes increasingly clear that something extraordinary is behind all this, possibly international in scope. Ultimately Peter finds himself out in the middle of frozen Lake Winnipeg during a blizzard, fighting for his life and confronting a horrifying realization he had been blind to all along.
-Annotations from the publishers
–Post by Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist
Giveaway
Enter your name here for a chance to win ARCs of the books mentioned in this post. One entry per person. Drawing to be held approximately 7 days after this post.
ARCs are “advanced reading copies.” These are free copies of a new books given by a publisher to librarians and other reviewers before the book is printed for mass distribution.
#FDL is a weekly update on all things Fondulac District Library and East Peoria.
FDL Reads: Wolf Soldier
Wolf Soldier by James R. Hannibal
Reviewed By: Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
Genre: Fantasy
Suggested Age: Teens, Adults
What is this book about? The Lightraider Order was a legendary group of knights who protected the people of Keledan. This order has been absent from the lands for many years. When a portal opens, allowing horrible creatures to invade the land, it’s up to several youths to start out on a journey to close the portal. Connor Enarian receives an invitation one day to train at the Lightraider academy to become a knight of the order. He and four other hopefuls train for many days, learn moral lessons, and prepare to defeat evil.
My Review: This is a swords and sorcery fantasy book based on the Christian fantasy role-playing game DragonRaid. There is quite a bit of allegory throughout. It is a good bridge between juvenile fantasy such as Rick Riordan or C.S. Lewis to young adult or adult fantasy. It’s not overly scary or graphic. It does has some typical fantasy tropes. For example, a young shepherd boy trains to be a warrior and goes on a journey to defeat evil. He meets a group of friends along the way and a potential love interest. I was impressed with the book’s worldbuilding thus far. It’s somewhat predictable, but still trying to be it’s own thing. This is the first in a potential series.
Three Words that Describe this Book: Adventurous, Action, Epic
Give This A Try if You Like…The Lord of the Rings, Shannara Chronicles, Chronicles of Narnia
Rating: 5/5
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FDL Reads: Stars and Bones
Stars and Bones by Gareth Powell
Reviewed By: Jeremy Zentner, Reference Assistant
Genre: Science fiction
Suggested Age: Adults
What is this book about? The world is on the run. Quite literally. Seventy-five years ago, humanity engaged in a nuclear war between the United States, Russia, and China, but when the bombs were about to drop, a benevolent creature of cosmic power saved humanity. This being was often referred to as the ‘angel’ and has been observing humanity for our entire existence. When it saw that nuclear war was about to occur, it decided to rescue humankind thanks to one scientist who managed to create wormhole technology. This advancement in what would become the key to faster-than-light travel was seen as reason enough to save humans from themselves. This salvation from nuclear fire came at a price, however. Humanity was evicted from earth so the remaining species could evolve without human dominion. Humanity left aboard nation-sized starships provided by the angel itself.
Fast forward seventy-five years and there’s a new threat on the verge of annihilating humanity and the fleet of starships they call home. This time the threat is not from within, but from outside the bounds of known space. Eryn is a navigator for a scout ship and when she and her crew look for her sister who went missing on mission, she discovers that an atrocious organism has killed her sister and everyone else caught in its sight. The creature follows her back to humanities’ fleet of arks and her home-ship is infected as the creature attempts to spread throughout the fleet, fixated on absorbing the billions of star-faring humans into a species of drone-like zombie puppets. Eryn and her rag-tag crew must find a way to stop this seemingly unstoppable menace. Their only hope is finding the one person who is known to directly speak with the “angel,” the scientist who discovered wormhole technology seventy-five years ago.
My Review: Well, this was quite a fun space adventure. Stars and Bones incorporates a great deal of sci-fi tropes, such as mysterious alien creatures like in 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as rag-tag space crew adventures that are akin to Guardians of the Galaxy. It also pushes some interesting questions on the totality of humankind when the ‘angel’ suddenly strips humans of their home planet. The descriptions of the evil organism makes for great horror that you may find in films like The Thing and Event Horizon. But don’t worry, the more terrifying scenes are just long enough to impose the gravity of the threat, not a saturation of blood and gore.
With witty banter and striking plot twists, I must say that I was consistently surprised where the author took me. What I especially enjoyed about the novel was Eryn’s journey through each massive starship of the fleet as she and her crew searched for the scientist who may be able to commune with the angel. They enter ships populated by Australians and talking robot sharks, to ships that are populated by human dissidents who don’t wish to obey the angel and their eviction from earth. What I also like about the book is that each starship has an AI that interacts with the crew via robots. These are beloved android characters that in many instances reminds me of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
There is a wealth of imagery and philosophy to feast your mind in this sci-fi epic.
Three Words that Describe this Book: funny, sci-fi, thriller
Give This A Try if You Like… Old Man’s War, The Expanse Series, Childhood’s End, Orion, The Watchmen, Mickey7, Fallen Dragon, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Rating: 5/5