Banning books is a bit of a hot topic in the United States right now. A topic that is handled rather adroitly in the book, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller. The book opens with Beverly Underwood, a member of the school board in Troy, Georgia and a woman who champions education and freedom of thought. However, she finds herself opposing Lula Dean, a woman who has decided to champion the idea of banning books in the school libraries and in the public library of Troy. What makes this interesting is that these two women have nurtured a mutual dislike that dates all the way back to high school but one that no one seems to know how it started. Lula Dean, in an effort to promote wholesome reading, has built a little library in her front yard that she filled with what she claims are the books that made her who she is. Beverly’s daughter, Lindsay Underwood, wants to help fight back against the book banning but wants to be careful about doing so. Her grand idea, sneak across town and swap the books in the little library. However, she replaces the dustcovers of the new books with the dustcovers of the original books so no one knows she has swapped them. Naturally, when people start borrowing these books and reading the banned books they start to learn about the world around them and many of them end up with their eyes opened as to what is really going on in their town.
I am going to start out by saying I picked this book entirely because of the idea of someone swapping the books like that. It sounds like an awesome prank, but also one that can potentially have a lot of unintended consequences if you are not careful. I don’t like the idea of banning books, never really have, but I also grew up in a family where reading those kinds of books was actively encouraged. However, I also know a lot of people who grew up in families where certain books were not allowed. The entire idea of restricting what someone has access to is rather frightening to me as it also means that you are restricting the ideas and thoughts that they have access to as well. It reminds me heavily of when I first read Fahrenheit-451 when I was a teenager. I liked this book though because it deals with this topic in a more realistic and relatable way. A lot of people live in places really similar to Troy, Georgia and probably deal with a lot of similar people or at the least similar thought processes. Reading about and seeing how this one thing impacts this town is rather enlightening, at least to me. The book did a great job of handling the topic of banning books but also of handling numerous related topics such as fighting back against the banning of books, prejudice in its many and varied forms, and what is history and how it is written. Honestly, not many books can handle so many sensitive topics and do so in a way that leaves the reader feeling like they were all treated honestly and fairly. Many books that deal with prejudice often show only the victims and the negative aspects of it. This book also showed the humanity behind many of the people who were prejudiced and shows just how they can change. It was an incredibly moving book and one that I can easily picture having a place on my personal bookshelf one day. As such I am giving it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
This book is a little weird to categorize as it is not fantasy or science fiction and it is not historical fiction either. I guess it would be probably be considered contemporary fiction. As such it may not hold a lot of appeal for readers who prefer those genres. That being said, it is the kind of book that I would recommend every reader consider reading as it deals with a topic that is close to all of our hearts, the banning of books and restrictions on reading. I know this is a book aimed primarily at adults and in many ways I would agree with that as it is the adults who really need to think about this topic. At the same time, there is nothing in this book in terms of content that would make it unsuitable for younger readers. It does touch on the occasional mature topic but the depiction is still suitable for older teens. I honestly think many teenagers should probably read this book as well so they also have the option to think about these things. Either way, consider sharing your thoughts on this book in the comments as I am curious what you think.