Join the SHERO Banned Book Club!

In response to the drastic increase of challenges from the right against controversial books, often involving important themes of race, gender and sexuality, let's read some banned books!

Good morning and happy Friday to everyone! I am starting a new reading project that I am really excited about — a SHERO book club! According to a new American Library Association report, there were 330 “book challenges” in the fall of 2021, which is a substantial increase from previous years. “Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades,” according to a report from the New York Times conducted last month.

There are roughly 99,000 public K-12 schools in the US and the rise of book bans reveals a dangerous, growing movement on the right to manipulate local and state rules to control teachers and public libraries. Among the most frequent targets are books about race, gender, and sexuality, like George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, Jonathan Evison’s Lawn Boy, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.

There are two immediate results from this growing problem: banning books will likely draw more children to those books, and adults who do have access to these books have a greater responsibility to read and promote them and encourage new readership. While it is concerning that children might have more difficulty acquiring hard copies of newly banned books, I would like to note that I never had a hard time getting my hands on an underground copy of VC Andrews once we all started reading it — you ban it, you drive new interest.

Now we all have a chance to do our part and have a good time discussing these literary treasures with our new friends here. I am starting a “Banned Book Club” this weekend and our first selection will be Toni Morrison’s Beloved. If you have read this book, I would encourage you to purchase one or more copies and get anyone you might know involved. We can have a Friday chat session here for all of those who are interested. I am also considering having a book club discussion on my new Callin podcast, so that club members can call in live to talk about the books with me.

Is this something you would be interested in? If so, order your copy of Beloved now and get started on reading with me! I am thinking that we can operate on a two-week schedule, but feel free to let me know in the comments if the timing is not working for you. I will also announce the book selection on today’s episode of SHERO on Callin, and I hope you will join me today at 2pm/ET and 11am/PT for our live discussion on Rudy Giuliani’s attempts to steal voting machines. I will also announce our new book club then!

Here is a list of the top 100 most banned books over the last decade, which is the list I will be using to choose our book selections. Browse these titles and let me know in the comments if there is a book you would like for us to read as a group, and be sure to tell us why. Order your copy of Beloved now — it is one of my all-time favorite books and a work of art, I’m so excited to read it again with you. I hope to talk with you this afternoon on Callin!

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Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and hosts the live SHERO podcast on Callin. She is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.

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