Queer YA Novels About Book Banning

Donovan was not expecting his 5th grade assigned reading of a book called The Adventurers to turn into a passionate community debate. But when his mom picked it up and interpreted the ending as implying the two boys become a couple, she arranged a meeting with the principal and demanded it be removed from the school. The situation is made more complicated by the fact that Donovan’s teacher is gay, and there is at least one out student in the class who doesn’t understand why the book would be considered inappropriate if it did gave gay characters. The narrative switches between Donovan and the book ban, the adventures of the two boys in the book, and two other boys in the school who start falling for each other while working together on a project.

David Levithan is the author of Boy Meets Boy and Two Boys Kissing (among many, many others) and he is an editor for a YA imprint at Scholastic, so he has an inside look at what it’s like to have queer books challenged and banned, as well as how important those narratives are — Boy Meets Boy was radical when it came out for imagining such an accepting environment for its queer characters. (Including a drag queen quarterback!)

As editor of her high school’s newspaper, Jamie writes an opinion piece about the update to the health curriculum, which now includes comprehensive sex ed and free condoms. The article starts a firestorm of backlash, both for the newspaper and the sex ed curriculum. The new textbooks are pulled from classes and a conservative parents’ group begins burning library books. Meanwhile, Jamie is starting to realize that she maybe, probably is falling for a female friend, though she hesitates to come out as her best friend, who’s gay, faces homophobia in the aftermath of her article.

Like Levithan, Nancy Garden is a historic name in queer YA. She wrote Annie On My Mind in 1982, a groundbreaking YA lesbian love story. It continues to be challenged and banned today.

When Dylan volunteers to put together a library display assembling book covers onto silhouettes of bodies, it starts a domino effect that has her questioning her own relationship to sex. Her choices for the books to represent the groin area of the silhouette are apparently scandalous. As she tries to defend herself, she also begins to form a new relationship to her body and her desires, admitting that she’s more interested in kissing a random girl at a party than her boyfriend.

While this book is not as well known as something like Annie On My Mind, it made a big impression on me when I read it as a young adult. I loved that this didn’t just discuss sexuality in terms of orientation, but also the entire concept of sex and desire: “Anyway, why does that part of your body have to be treated like a wild animal that should be caged and controlled? Why can’t it be about decency and honor, and what’s true and good? And wise,” Dylan argues. Honestly, I still think that the message that sexuality (especially young people’s sexuality) doesn’t deserve to be demonized is still progressive, though this came out in 2006.

I fell in love with Vo’s previous book, The Chosen and the Beautiful, so I can’t wait into this other historical fantasy! Lulli is a Chinese American girl trying to break into pre-code Hollywood, and she’s willing to do anything to make it. Behind the scenes, she finds a network of demons, dark magic, and blood pacts that decide what makes it to the screen.

Daisy runs the Pies Before Guys mobile bakery, which has a secret: baked into the delicious goodies is revenge against men who wrong women. But that secret is threatened when she starts getting blackmail letters. Well, that will make trying to win the state pie-baking content a little more complicated.

If you, like me, are a fan of Meet Cute Diary, you’ll want to check out Lee’s newest, a M/M YA romance between two sons of competing restaurants. A new fusion café is poised to put both their families out of business, so they band together to try to save them. The close working conditions and secrecy, though, start to turn these rivals into something more than reluctant allies.