Banned Book Club
Every year, books are being banned and challenged in public and school libraries, usually because they fall somewhere on a wide spectrum of appropriateness. Often a single parent (or someone who doesn’t have a child in the school district) can challenge a book, which effectively removes it from the shelves pending a review. Many children (and adults) get their reading books from their school or public library, so removing it from the shelf makes it inaccessible to that reader, effectively banning it. We rebelliously read these banned books and discuss what they are about and why they have been banned.
The books most frequently challenged have certain themes in common:
- LGBTQ topics or characters.
- Race and racism, or that center on protagonists of color topics.
- Contain sex, abortion, teen pregnancy or puberty.
- Contain history, specifically that of Black people.
Cargill UMC supports open and honest conversations about these and other topics. Visit the Church Calendar for our most recent banned book and discussion date. The American Library Association (ALA) monitors book bans in school districts across the nation.
Disclaimer: the books are not all really banned; most are “challenged” in an attempt to remove or restrict materials based on their content.