Un-banned Books

This adorable picture book extols fry bread, a traditional bread made by Indigenous people that originated as a result of forced relocation. In 1864, Native Nations were forced on the “Long Walk,” in which they had to travel 300 miles to unfamiliar lands. After many starved, the U.S. government stepped in to give rations of flour, baking powder, and salt — ingredients for the beloved fry bread. The dish is not without its critics, though.

Academy Award winning actor and Black Panther’s boo, Lupita N’yongo’s book about a girl trying to find her way is beautifully illustrated. We follow Sulwe, whose beautiful dark skin leaves her feeling less than confident. She pines to have lighter complexion like her mother and sister. Once she goes on her magical journey, though, her thoughts around beauty change and her confidence is reinvigorated.

I wanted to make sure to include a couple children’s books to show how even those aren’t safe from banning. Look at these precious covers! How do you look at that and think negatively?

Arturo and Alma Rivera leave Mexico with their daughter Maribel. They hope that living in the U.S. will help Maribel to heal from a serious injury. They soon realize just how many obstacles there are in the way of them achieving their American dream, however.

Meanwhile, Maribel is having realizations of her own. The neighbor’s kid, Mayor, and her have a burgeoning romance that inspires gossip. But the two teenagers see in each other what others fail to notice in this novel showing how incorrectly immigrants are labeled.

What if what you thought you knew about yourself was wrong? That’s the case for Kristen Lattimer, whose life seems to be going pretty well when we first meet her. She’s got scholarships lined up for college, friends, and a great boyfriend. One day, when she and her boyfriend decide to take the next step and attempt to have sex, Kristen realizes something is wrong. She goes to the doctor and finds out she’s intersex and has male chromosomes. In addition to this revelation, she has to contend with the rest of her high school finding out. This book explores how deeply entrenched gender is with our identity, and what it means to identify as male, female, or intersex.

“Failing schools. Underprivileged schools. Just plain bad schools.”

Ewing opens Ghosts in the Schoolyard with this straight-to-the-point description of Chicago’s public schools before the Mayor announced an unprecedented amount of school closings in 2013. The idea, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, was to make way for better schools by combatting lower enrollments rates, budget woes, and purging the bad schools. This sounds well and good until you consider how the decision was met with widespread protest, which begs the question: if the schools were so bad, why did parents, teachers, and students still want them open? Ewing answers this question by examining the elements of race and class that have influenced Chicago’s public education system. This may focus on Chicago, but I reckon many of the things explained here are mirrored in many cities across the United States.