Banned Books 2024

  Several of the books discussed in this course have been challenged for “spreading an agenda,” or “pushing an idea,” on their readers . Juno Dawson’s This Book is Gay may be the only instance where this is true, a nd it is because no one else did it for her . Dawson prefaces the book that she wrote the novel to give LGBTQ+ (and curious straight and cisgender allies) the edu cation that schools have failed to give them. She points out how , “ Heterosexual sex is taught as THE NORM. Not just at school but in 99 percent of TV shows, films, books, magazines, and news stories” but nevertheless it is still taught poorly (172 on Apple Books, otherwise beginning of Chapter 9) . She accomplishes this in two ways; with humor and real stories from members of the LGBTQ+ community.   As we discussed in class, there is a stigma for talking about sex in the classroom, especially with young people. Many of us ( myself included) had the beyond - strange experience of screa...

     Juno Dawson's This Book Is Gay  provides education on gender and sexuality which is sorely missing in sex education conversations. I think it was particularly well done because despite the book being labeled as gay, it did not exclude information about straight or cisgender people. Dawson's audience is young people, most of whom are unsure how they identify or are in the process of learning more about their gender and sexuality. Providing a wide range of information about the different genders and sexualities and including accounts from real people allows her readers to make up their own minds with a good baseline of information.      I also really liked Dawson's address to the parents reading this book. She offers advice that showing your child through actions and words that you accept the whole spectrum of gender and sexuality is more effective in creating a safe place for the conversation to occur. And it is so much better than forcing them to ...

Juno Dawson’s This Book is Gay is a lovely example of malicious compliance that gives the loud conservative right (and any quietly opinionated parents) exactly what they want. It’s got the colors of the rainbow on every version of it, paperback, hardcover, and Kindle title screen (I checked!) and the title is so clear it’s honestly kind of insulting. It gives people the warning they’ve been demanding and tells parents to keep their children away because it’s got the queer content they so desperately need to shield them from. But, it’s still fallen under fire. It’s deemed too mature for readers—which is ironic considering almost every 13-year-old girl has read the American Girl company’s The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls —and has had countless other claims lobbed against it. But, I’d rather not dwell on the ways This Book is Gay is upsetting. I feel that there are much better things one can focus on. This Book is Gay is a good read. Like, a really good read. Dawson...

  Tyra Alexander 25 March 2024 EN*499 Dr. Ellis Reflecting on “This Book is Gay” and Other Books Targeted  Towards Adolescent Health  After finishing Dawson, there was a lot on my mind. However my main connection sprouted from my childhood and the damned American Girl ‘Care and Keeping of You’ book. If you don’t know what this book is, then you’re in for a treat. This book acted as a holy text for young girls. When you turned around the age of ten, you were given (or in my case, handed down) the tell-all for what it means to have a growing body as a young lady. It touched on topics such as periods, puberty, hygiene, and how to deal with feelings and friends; with the sole purpose of assuring that younger girls who are experiencing changes within, are making healthy choices. What made this book stand out to me was similar to Dawson; it’s pictures. If you've experienced this book while you were younger then you remember the “graphic” drawings. “Care and Keeping of You” was ...

     I truly believe that Juno Dawson's This Book is Gay deserves a place on every library's shelves. With a brilliant incorporation and balance of humor, emotion, factual information, and personal stories, Dawson's book acts as a crucial guide for young readers to gain a better understanding of themselves, and those around them. As we discussed in class, this book provides a voice for those who are consistently underrepresented in literature, and it serves as a means of providing the vocabulary necessary for those unsure of how to put a name to their feelings and identities.     While I was consistently considering this book as a piece of literature for a younger audience when reading the first half, the second half made me realize the importance of this book as a guide for parents, too. In the chapter, "Build a Bridge," Dawson shares her advice for parents and guardians supporting their children who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. She states, "be...

Why can't we just love each other?   A review of "This Book is Gay" As a straight, cis-woman, I'm extremely grateful I've read This Book is Gay . I'll admit it, I am not well-educated on the LGBTQ+ community, which I admit is most likely my fault. However, I am extremely grateful for this book because it has provided me with the opportunity to be educated. But most importantly, because Dawson has given a voice to minorities. I was reflecting on my own journey of learning about sexuality, identity, and sex and Dawson is exactly right, only one conversation is being had. All of the other narratives are left out. I could not even begin to imagine how lost or uncomfortable members of the LGBTQ+ community must feel daily because of this lack of representation. There is nothing I can say except - I'm sorry. When it comes to living your LIFE, you deserve to feel heard, seen, and most importantly free. When books like Dawson's get banned, people's lives ar...

  The most important aspect, at least to me, of This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson is that it is in effect a journal speaking directly to the readers. Often, when reading a book, even when it is full of personal anecdotes or accounts, there is a distance between the reader and the author. Perhaps it’s not necessarily a superiority complex, but I can’t help but call it that. When an author is writing they know so much more about the story than the reader ever truly will, so there is a sense of yearning to know more. What Dawson does beautifully is invite the reader fully into the narrative. How beautiful and exceptional for someone to care so much that they are willing to be so vulnerable and author a book to give to young people so they are not alone.  We’ve discussed this concept a lot: the idea of books being a method of escape or a solace for certain individuals, especially when they are able to see themselves reflected in the characters. For Dawson to create this book that ...

     Juno Dawson's work, This Book is Gay , is somewhat of a riff on the standard puberty books most adolescents receive upon entering middle school. These books are meant to be easy-to-read, user-friendly, and conversational texts that can provide young children with the information and the proper vocabulary to use concerning the changes that are occurring to their bodies as they enter puberty. Noticeably, however, these books often gloss over or entirely omit LGBTQ+ issues, such as only discussing heterosexual love and sex, not explaining the differences between "sex" and "gender," etc. Dawson seeks to remedy this egregious oversight with her book, conceiving of This Book is Gay  as a one-stop shop for kids to be educated on queerness and the history and culture of the queer community. While the book is mainly intended for kids who are exploring or discovering their queerness, it is not exclusionary of cis / straight people and is also aimed at educating them ...

     One thing I really love about This Book is Gay  is the discussion of safe spaces for queer folx.     Dawson describes LGBTQ safe spaces exclusively as "a friendly and supportive environment without the fear of encountering prejudice" and "safe spaces for LGBT* people t meet free from ridicule or harassment"  (152, 156). These two quotes really show just how important spaces like these are for queer people. The world is already so hateful and angry at us for existing, and these spaces give a reprieve from the bombardment of judgement and prejudice.      However, in the section on safe spaces I really wish that Dawson had touched on the age-old argument that creating safe spaces for LGBTQ folx or any LGBTQ-only spaces is discriminating against non-LGBTQ people. I come across arguments like this all the time and just never know what to do about it––whether it be in the form of being told that refusing to be friends with homophobes or t...

  The thing with banning books is that at the end of the day, it just doesn’t work. }Kids are crafty, they find ways to get into things that they “shouldn’t”, and banning the reading of books in a controlled, educational environment, only stands to let them play detective and find things they actually shouldn’t be looking at in an uncontrolled environment. Mullally writes that parents and boards who promote the banning of books primarily operate under the objective of “protect[ing] the children in our schools from… moral danger” (Mullally, 2). The issue with that idea, however noble, is that the act of banning books with that goal in mind is inherently counterintuitive.            Books are often banned due to being deemed “emotionally inappropriate” (Ringel, 4). But, the act of shielding children from the realities of the world (like the fact that racism and gay people are real, spooky! ) is what’s actually emotionally inappropriate. Preventing...

Caroline Kunz Dr. Ellis EN 499 18 March 2024 Banning Books vs. Protecting Mental Health     This week's readings were incredibly beneficial in expanding my knowledge on the history of book banning, and the detriments that it continues to have on readers of all ages - especially those that are young. First, Mullally's piece provided jarring context to the issue of book banning, reminding us that the act of banning a book is a direct violation of our first amendment rights that forbid the censorship of literature. This notion makes more troubling the fact that parents, libraries, and schools continue to report books to be banned in order to fulfill their "moral obligation" to "protect the children in our schools from this moral danger as surely as from physical and medical dangers" (Mullally 2). What I cannot seem to understand is how these books can possibly be looked upon as "dangerous," when they contain real-life historical events, real life iden...

Reading Ringel and Mullally’s articles, I was reminded of a scene from the popular Netflix series,  Ginny & Georgia . After her teacher not-so-subtly suggests that she would be better suited for the lower-level English class, Ginny stands up for herself and her education. “There are sixteen books on this syllabus,” she notes. “Fourteen of them were written by men, fifteen were written by white people, and I’m willing to make a guess that the one black author will crop up in the syllabus just in time for Black History Month… am I right?” At this, Ginny is met with stunned silence from both her teacher and classmates. Just as adults (parents, educators, etc.) have the power to control what students are reading in the classroom, they seem to believe they have the power to control what students are not reading. I say “they seem,” because the whole thing is completely ridiculous to me. Unfortunately, however, the reality of these decisions is an extremely harmful way of thinking. “I...