Why I Read Banned Books
I read banned books. You likely do too, whether or not you realize it. How do I know this fact?
Because most books are banned for the silliest reasons.
Example: My all time favorite novel, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, was chosen for my teen’s school’s read-a-thon last year. They choose a book to read every year as a fundraiser. Why was Pride and Prejudice banned, do you ask? Because Elizabeth Bennett is too sassy and doesn’t follow the societal norms? Because Elizabeth dared to decline Darcy’s proposal? Because it was written by a woman?
No. Pride and Prejudice was banned on the basis of its NAME. PRIDE—maybe the book banners thought it was queer lit? PREJUDICE—maybe the book banners thought that the book would be about race?
And so what if those things were true? They’re not.
But it points to the fact that many of the people doing the banning DON’T EVEN READ! And they definitely aren’t reading the books they are proposing should be banned.
Book bans make no sense connected with people saying they are protecting kids. Whose kids? Take care of your own. Let us each make decisions for our own kids.
The only reason to ban a book is to take away knowledge. And there it is, my bookish friends, they want to ban books because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
I’ve said many words about book banning, including at our local city council meetings. I’ve heard many brave people talk about it more eloquently than I can. (And I’ve also heard a lot of nonsense.)
Bottom line: the United States of America was started on the premise of freedom—freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of speech.
You can’t—even in the name of. your religion—seriously think that you should be controlling what other kids can and can’t do. Especially in the time of such vast online connectivity when your kids have access to so much more.
Deep breaths.
Here are our book recs for Banned Books Week 2026.
The Banned Book I’ve Read That Changed Me
The Color Purple by Alice Walker—I read this novel the summer before starting high school, while taking a speed reading class. I’ll tell you one thing, you CANNOT speed read Alice Walker. I loved reading The Color Purple even as I cringed about the trauma. The book was lyrical and different and unlike anything I had read before. And, since I’ve just started re-reading I’m suddenly realizing how surprised I was about Celie being gay even though there are hints right at the start. To be fair, I grew up in a sheltered Catholic school and in the 1990s, we did not talk about being gay or LGBTQ issues in Catholic elementary, middle, or high school. (As my youngest likes to tease me about—I didn’t understand as a teen that Nick in The Great Gatsby woke up next to a man—I didn’t remember that scene until we talked about it. And then I had a vague memory of 15 year old me likely re-reading the scene and thinking maybe they had a slumber party?) ~MTC
I’m not going to write a review because it’s been too many years since I’ve read The Color Purple and I won’t do the book any justice. But there are themes and scenes that have sat with me and I loved seeing Celie’s journey. ~MTC
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas—after so many gun violence tragedies, I’ve learned on social media and THUG that parents of black children in the US need to give their kids the TALK. No, not the birds and the bees one, but the one that involves them being singled out simply for the color of their skin by a police officer or other person of authority. THUG is a fictionalized account of the aftermath of a black teen killed by a police officer. Thomas brings all the events to the surface—with multifacted characters and many interwoven stories. ~ MTC
The Outsiders by SE Hinton—The Outsiders is one of the most emotionally impactful books I’ve ever read. It explores classism and brotherhood via the story of 14-year-old Ponyboy, a “greaser” in 1960s Tulsa. SE Hinton uses raw and honest narration and complex characterization to convey important messages regarding empathy, family, grief, class, belonging, and growing up. This book will break your heart and change your worldview forever. It’s an English-class classic for a reason. ~RMM
The Banned Book I’m Reading Next
The Last Night at Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo—unfortunately Lo’s book has been at the top ten of the most challenged books in 2025. It’s a teen fiction set in SF in the 1950s, navigating the ‘Red Scare’ era, and it happens to feature two teen girls falling in love. The reason I’m reading this book next is because there is a character who was inspired by Dr. Margaret Chung, the first Asian-American physician trained in the U.S., who among being a wartime celebrity who ‘adopted’ many military sons and had great connections and influence in government and Hollywood. And who likely was in a long-time relationship with a female poet, ~MTC
Efren Divided by Ernesto Cisneros—Cisneros visited my kids’ school several years ago so we’ve had this novel for a while. They’ve both read it and I’m behind. When one of Efren’s parents is deported, he has to navigate what it means for him and his family left behind. Efren Divided has been on locally challenged lists and was also included in Scholastic Fairs ‘workaround’ list that they offered in 2023, in which they basically were creating book bans. If you don’t offer a book for sale in the school community with the purpose of keeping out books with diversity, immigration issues, LGBTQ characters, then you are in essence banning it. Scholastic has since reversed its decision to offer a separate list. ~ MTC
Sibylline by Melissa De La Cruz—oof, where to start with this one? One or two people in our house have already read this book and I know Mr. Bookworm plans to read it this week. I just saw something on threads in which there are several posts trying to “cancel” the widely acclaimed writer, Melissa De La Cruz, for Sibylline supposedly because there is some sexual content that they oppose? I just think that if you don’t want your kids to read certain books, then don’t let them read them. Don’t limit books for the rest of us. (Also, opposing a book for its FICTIONAL sexual content but support a real life president who is convicted of SA and is all over the Epstein files? Make it make sense.) ~MTC
The Last Banned Book I Read
SM: The last banned book I read: RED HOOD by Elana K. Arnold. It's a damn good book -- that is clear in the first few pages -- and it should be in every high school library and librarians should recommend it. Especially to the boys.
It's been banned 51 times in the US -- most recently in Utah, earlier this year -- usually for "sexual content". It does have sex scenes; there's one right in the first chapters. But they're not graphic or titillating and are about the most wholesome and vanilla sex scenes Ican remember reading. Hundreds of books that are not banned have more explicit content.
So why do the book banners hate THIS book so much?
Maybe partly because the scenes are so wholesome -- loving, respectful, mutually consenting, female-centered: book banners especially dislike that kind of sex, especially the last bit.
I don't think that's it, though. Because you know what RED HOOD really is explicit about? Menstruation. All of it -- the goopy, stringy bits, the smells, the sensations, the weird experience of using a tampon for the first time. A young woman consciously figuring out how her body works and how to take care of it. And the book banners HATE that.
As a number of the book banners prating at the Huntington Beach city council meeting a few years ago (6/20/2023) made clear, they don't believe that kids should be able to read about puberty. They should only be able learn it "from their mothers", or whatever. So, yeah, when these people hear about (not read, they don't do that) a book where the inciting incident happens when our heroine's boyfriend accidentally licks period blood and she panics and runs off into the woods screaming... They also panic and run off screaming and then they grab their pitchforks and start a bonfire.
RED HOOD also confronts domestic violence, incels, online and irl harassment, abusive relationships, and other topics that the book banners do not want to talk about but that young people deal with -- or perpetrate -- every day.
Read it for the upside-down fairy tale, read it for the period blood— allegorical and otherwise, and read it for the grandma who knows how to dispose of a body.
Also, fun fact: Elana was at that fateful (and hateful) HB meeting and was one of the brilliant public commenters that made the book banners look stupid.
MTC: I looked through my book log and the last banned book I read was likely Pride and Prejudice since I read it every year. Though I also read books by Christina Lauren and Ali Hazelwood and I’m sure they’ve been banned somewhere.
Prior to P&P, the most recent widely banned book I’ve read is Heartstopper by Alice Oseman. Oseman’s beloved series started as a webcomic that transitioned to the graphic novels (and Netflix series) and the 6th volume and movie were released this past summer. Honestly, I love the Heartstopper series—I mean for me, a hopeless romantic, Oseman really gets to the heart of what it’s like navigating falling in love for the first time, especially in a high school setting where having a same sex relationship can be tougher. But Charlie and Nick have me rooting for them all the way. They give me Eleanor and Park vibes—a heartbreaking bittersweet kind of love that can only be fully felt through the lens of the crazy hell that is high school (or UK equivalent).
I don’t think I have to write the reasons why Heartstopper has been banned because it’s obvious, but I’ll list them anyway—queer characters and representation. Period.
Top Ten Banned Books 2026 per the ALA
Statistics from the American Library Association
