Just hit 50 banned books read this year and it wasn't intentional

I was tallying up my reading list for 2023 and realized exactly 50 out of 87 books I finished were banned somewhere in the U.S. or globally. The one that got me was "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas - banned in multiple Texas school districts but required reading in some New York schools. Has anyone else been surprised by how many books you read that end up on these lists?

2 comments

2 Comments

jackson.jenny20d ago

Found myself nodding along because I just hit 43 banned books without even trying. "The Hate U Give" was one of my big surprises too, I read it for a book club and didn't realize it was banned in so many places until later. The weirdest one for me was "Captain Underpants" - like seriously, a kids comic about a superhero in his underwear gets targeted? That's the stuff my little brother laughs at. It really made me question what exactly people are afraid of kids reading. What's the most random book you've found on a banned list?

palmer.zara20d ago

@jackson.jenny you said "that's the stuff my little brother laughs at" and honestly that's EXACTLY why Captain Underpants gets banned. People see a book that's just silly and fun and they think kids won't learn anything serious from it. But here's the thing - humor IS serious business for kids. It teaches them to love reading in the first place. The most random one I found was "Where's Waldo?" because someone complained about a tiny topless sunbather in one of the crowd scenes. I mean come on, you have to SQUINT to even see it and the whole point is finding Waldo not finding hidden nudity. Stuff like that makes me wonder if people even read the books they're trying to ban or just hear one complaint and run with it.