BAN THIS BOOK

BAN THIS BOOK by Alan Gratz

Well known author, Alan Gratz, took a 90 degree right turn from his usual historical fiction style when he wrote Ban This Book. I typically would have left this one on the shelf, but since it was Gratz, I decided to give it a go.

Our story opens with Amy Anne Olinger going into her school library to check out her favorite book, From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. She is absolutely devastated when she finds out that due to a fellow classmate's mother, that book, along with several others, are no longer available for check out. They have been banned.

 I'm going to rabbit trail for a moment and tell you that I recognized several of the books that are mentioned in this story from my childhood, and even owned some of them, so I was surprised about some of the books Gratz was specifically mentioning in this story. I then googled each title that was mentioned, and yes, every book he mentions has been banned at some point somewhere.

Amy Anne decides to take some action. She collects copies of the banned books through friends or purchasing or stealing the copies out of the school library that have been pulled, and she quietly opens a B.B.L.L. or Banned Book Locker Library of which she is the head librarian. Needless to say, word gets around the school quickly and peers are constantly borrowing the books and secretly making references to the banned stories. As the book continues, our "problem" parent continues to bring lists of more banned books to the library that she has had approved through school board meetings with zero pushback, so Amy Anne's locker library continues to grow. The books are banned for reasons as far apart from each other as inducing a child to run away from home to sexual content. There is one book in particular that Gratz references that the kids are a bit embarrassed talking about until one girl explains that she has a copy at home that her mom reads through with her. That is the only one that the kids talk about with sexual content.

Ultimately, Gratz feels that books should be available to kids and with their parents help, they together should make the decision about what to read or not read.

So what do you do with a book like this? Well, depending on your stance on the whole issue you can: 1.) let your child read it, 2.) stay away from it, 3.) either sit down and read it with your child or each read it separately and then talk together about banned books and your views.

HEADS UP- As mentioned above, Amy Anne starts "dealing" the books out of her locker. This, of course, goes against current school policy, and she does end up getting in trouble. She also lies to her parents about several things. When it comes out, her parents are very surprised and disappointed as she is the one at home that always "gives in" when there's any disagreements. As the story progresses Amy Anne begins to blow up at home in a few situations with her parents. Also, as mentioned above, there is reference to a book that has been banned for its sexual content. SPOILER ALERT Amy Anne ends up finding out that one of the banned books is a book that the "problem" parent checked out and read as a child. She confronts the parent at a school board meeting and then we see policy change regarding banned books.