This book is a must read for all librarians! After a parent does not follow the appropriate process yet bans her favorite book, Amy Anne begins to collect the banned books to create a library of her own. This book lends itself to many discussions regarding book challenges and banning. The end of the book also provides discussion topics and additional activities that can be used for teaching purposes. ( )

With all the book bans going on in this country, I figured it was time to read this one. It's fantastic, and I think every kid should read this!

For shy fourth-grader Amy, the school library is her refuge from her noisy family; the librarian really gets her, and books like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler offer her an escape from a life in which she never says what's on her mind because she's supposed to be the good, well-behaved girl. When a "concerned parent" bans her favorite book--sidestepping the usual review process because she school board loves her other community contributions--and eleven others, she wants to take action...but her shyness trips her up.

The book ban has the opposite effect--suddenly the school kids, even those who don't read a lot, are interested in reading those verboten books! And everyone knows that Amy the bookworm can hook them up...especially when she and some close friends decide to round up every banned book they own and open a secret library in her locker so that any kid can read the books for themselves. Amy's on edge, but also making more friends than she ever thought she could. Meanwhile, she's still struggling with a family that doesn't understand her need for a little privacy, peace, and quiet.

When the locker library is inevitably discovered and shut down, the kids stand together in an act of what I believe is called "malicious compliance": feeling that the reasons the books have been banned are absurd, the entire school rallies to submit complaint forms for hundreds of books in the library--that Magic Treehouse definitely isn't up to code! They submit their forms at the next school board meeting, make their voices known, and get the previously school-board-approved reconsideration process reinstated: no more dodging the system just because of one powerful parent. Amy gets her own happy ending too; once her parents see just how important her books are to her, and how seriously she needs some peace (she tries to run away at one point, with as much success as most comfortably privileged kids have), they clean out a den for her own room. (I did have to laugh when the parents said they had a small house. It's clearly got at least four bedrooms, and one of them held two non-bunk beds.)

I'm sure this book could be banned for many of the same reasons that the books banned in the story (all of which have really been banned for those very real reasons in real life): disobeying parents, skipping classes, thinking about running away, breaking rules by bringing banned books to school. In that sense, the title is particularly apt.

I really love how Gratz handled this story. It could have been so easy to make Amy a total victim of bullying, to make the concerned mother and her son straight-up villains, to give Amy a crush, to make her do a 360 into confidence at the end of the book. Instead, she finds that she's liked for who she is, and that people who seemed largely indifferent to her are actually casually kind, not cruel. She makes friends with the boy who she thinks is her enemy and learns to see the book-banning mother as a whole person--recognizing her positive contributions to the school and, instead of publicly shaming her for hypocritically banning a book that she read multiple times as a child, pointing out that she became a pillar of the community despite (perhaps because of) those readings. Amy's best friend may have a crush, but she doesn't get one--come on, they're in fourth grade, not everyone's interested in romance yet! Amy is so nervous during her final speech--it never comes easy, but she does it anyway. And book banning itself isn't overturned and banned in the end; instead, there's a very realistic outcome, with the review process reinstated and the often-cited ability of parents to decide what their children are ready to read ultimately enforced. Oh, and the kids are so casually diverse: Amy is Black, her friends are white and brown and Latino, and there isn't that yucky automatic boy-girl social division. Everyone commingles. Utopia!

A book every kid should read! ( )

This is a fantastic read for older elementary to middle school aged children. As an adult, I highly enjoyed reading this book as well. Alan Gratz walks us through the trials and tribulations of students working to counteract the book banning process happening in their school library. When they create their own library, providing access to the banned literature, many students become interested in reading and the activism around their fight. These students ultimately end up speaking up to the school board, showing children the importance of standing up for what you believe in, and providing free, uncensored access to literature in a public setting. This book connects to topics such as challenged/banned literature in real life, activism, youth social engagement and community building. This book is a great tool for discussions in the classroom around social-justice movements in the local community. This book is inclusive, showing a young black girl as the main character, with a family that engages in their own dynamic journey to better support her and her friends in their mission. One quote that really spoke to me in this book was: “Every person should be free to read whatever they want, whenever they want, and not have to explain to anyone else why we like it, or why we think it’s valuable” (Alan Gratz). ( )

This is a great story for all of us reading nerds -- girl goes to school to check out her absolutely favorite book again and it's been taken off the shelves because a parent was concerned. It's a little didactic, I have to say, a little preachy here and there. But I don't mind that because I wholeheartedly agree with the message, and I love love love the empowerment that happens here. Amy Anne goes from a girl who can't speak her mind to one who's passionate for a cause. The boundaries about how to determine bad behavior from thoughtful protest are well drawn, and the whole thing is at a good level for 4-5th graders. Nicely done. Also love that AA is a girl of color with an interesting family and some really good friends. ( )

I loved this book. The message is clear and consise. ( )