Banning books

Versus talking about the troubling parts

(Jane Benjamin on vacation in charming Omena, Michigan lodging.)

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind, involving travel to Omena, Michigan and Nashville, Tennessee for friendship, family and book events.

In between Killer Nashville and Bouchercon conferences, I learned something interesting from a friend who lives nearby, a former English Department Chair at a tiny prep school. Three years ago, she assigned my first novel, Copy Boy, as part of the required reading list in her school’s AP Junior English program. (It replaced Tom’s Cabin on the list.) What I didn’t know before was just how much trouble she would face for assigning my book to her students.

Some parents weren’t happy.

First they disliked that Copy Boy was new, not a classic, and worried that reading recently written novels would not prepare their children for the AP test and for college. These are fair questions to ask. But, also, they did not like that two of the novel’s characters appear to be lesbians. I say “appear” because there is zero sexual content in the book. But there are feelings between these two characters. These feelings, and their implications, were troubling to these parents.

Don’t worry. This won’t turn into a story about censorship or book banning. The students’ parents rightfully expressed their questions to the teacher, who explained her point of view—that Copy Boy gave students an opportunity to talk about complicated issues, through the experience of characters they might relate to. She told the parents that she chose the novel because it provided a realistic insight into the limitations placed on women at the time, how it required bravery and tenacity to overcome those gender stereotypes and how we are still dealing with those issues today.

Three years later, though my friend is no longer working at that school, teachers are still assigning Copy Boy to juniors. (In the photo above, you’ll see a Copy Boy-inspired mask made by one student last semester, which was displayed in their school library.)

This reminds me of the time I spent facilitating my son’s Banned Book Club, which met from his eighth grade year all the way through high school. When those kids chose at sixteen to read Lolita, you can imagine how stressed I was about leading that discussion.

One day, the local librarian told me she preferred we not meet in her library as a teen group that featured banned books. I cried after that conversation. But when I told the kids what had happened, they were thrilled—they’d been banned from the library. It really upped the cool factor. Reading is such a subversive activity.

So thank you to all my teacher and librarian friends out there for fighting the good fight.

In its “Free Books” presentation, the Bouchercon conference supported people who protect against book bans:

And The New York Times recently featured a great piece about a librarian turned activist, amidst book bans.

Now let’s all go out there and be naughty—read books!

Best, Shelley Blanton-Stroud