Ashley Hope Pérez's Out of Darkness "became one of the most banned books in the U.S." in 2021. The removal of her books from libraries and schools and the vitriolic hatred she received from strangers unlikely to have read her writing galvanized Pérez to create Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights. This powerful compilation of essays, stories, comics, and poetry features 15 authors banding together over being banned; their work is enhanced by Ignatz Award-nominated illustrator Debbie Fong's graphics. The goal here, Pérez says, is "to talk about what is happening to books in libraries, why these vanishing stories matter, and how you can empower yourself and others to resist."
Maia Kobabe, whose Gender Queer was "the most challenged book in the United States in 2021 and 2022," captures the disturbing data behind the bans, specifically that "most of these challenges are to books with diverse characters and LGBTQ themes." Nikki Grimes contributes a verse response ("Extraordinary Hazards") to challenges to her award-winning memoir-in-verse Ordinary Hazards, calling out "the kangaroo court of/ hate-mongers masquerading/ as sweet mama bears." Elana K. Arnold describes instances of sexual abuse from her own life in "The Things, the Things That Happened, the Things That Happened to Me," explaining why and for whom she writes vulnerable books. In "Groomer," Bill Konigsberg, too, shares his abuse as a young teen, saying "the stories I tell make a difference in preventing what happened to me from happening to other kids." Brendan Kiely's "O-Town Blues" chillingly pits a teen against his own mother over book bans; MariNaomi's "Mature Themes" uses an illustrated format to show how banned books saved her life; and Isabel Quintero's "The Art of the Hocicona" states: "I don't need to be pretty; I need to be heard."
In between the broad range of contributions, Pérez inserts informational interstitials (denoted by purple pages): examples include Book Ban FAQs, enriching book lists, "Ridiculous Reasons Books Have Been Challenged, Removed, or Banned" (for example, Ruta Sepetys's Between Shades of Gray was mistaken for the adult erotica Fifty Shades of Grey). Ellen Hopkins reminds readers in her personal piece "Imagining the Unimaginable" that "knowledge is power. And that is what they fear. Regardless of your upbringing, of where you live, or how you're otherwise pigeonholed, you'll find the knowledge you need in books." --Terry Hong
Shelf Talker: Banned author Ashley Hope Pérez gathers work from 15 lauded and banned writers in this compelling collection.