Banning Underpants
Time marches on, but attempts to boot books out of libraries never seems to go out of style. The American Library Association is out with its annual rundown of the most frequently challenged books. Novels for young people topped this year’s list. Targeted titles included Captain Underpants, Thirteen Reasons Why, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. The author of that last title explains: “Everything in the book is what every kid in that school is dealing with on a daily basis, whether it’s masturbation or racism or sexism or the complications of being human.” Some of those themes can carry over into adulthood.
+ Here’s a look at the whole list.
+ Is Amazon killing small, independent bookstores? It might be doing a better job of killing the big ones.