First published in 1970, Morrison’s novel about a Black girl growing up during the Great Depression is a meditation on the oppressive nature of America’s white-centric conception of beauty, as New York Times reviewer John Leonard wrote at the time.

Johnson discuss their work at the Festival of Books. (Left to right) Author Angie Thomas and George M. In 2022, Time magazine named Johnson one of the 100 influencers shaping the next generation.

That led Johnson to write this 2020 book of coming-of-age essays, which has been challenged for its LGBTQ+ content and for being sexually explicit. In a recent discussion at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Johnson recalled that as a young Black queer person, they never saw themselves in any of the books they read. (56 bans 150 challenges, according to the ALA)Ģ. The debut book by a Santa Rosa illustrator, “ Gender Queer” has become the most banned book in America, a target of school boards, conservative candidates, preachers and parental groups who condemned it as pornography aimed at impressionable children. It also has been attacked for its frank depiction of sexual behavior, as Times columnist Robin Abcarian wrote in 2022. This bestselling 2019 autobiography in graphic novel format has been praised for its honest, open discussion of what it’s like to be a nonbinary person. Here are 15 books PEN America says were most frequently banned from July 2021 through the first part of the 2022-23 school year.ġ. reports that in 2022 a record 1,269 demands were made to restrict or ban books and other materials in schools and libraries - up from 156 demands in 2020. Now, Lee says, “large swaths of books, sometimes even entire school or classroom libraries are being removed.” Many activists and politicians object to an entire genre of books that deal with LGBTQ+ topics or issues. Prior to the current wave, communities usually banned books on a case-by-case basis, often in response to complaints about violent or sexual content. Salinger and Toni Morrison.īut the dramatically increasing censorship attempts have evolved, says Allison Lee, Los Angeles director of PEN America, a century-old writers organization that works to defend freedom of expression.

school districts and libraries is the latest front in a long-running battle that has swept up even literary masterpieces of John Steinbeck, J.D. Maia Kobabe with her book 'Gender Queer: A Memoir' at North Sonoma Regional Park in Santa Rosa.

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