Funny Friday - Banned Books Week Edition

 Speed Bump by Dave Coverly

                      - originally published August 7, 2023

Looking for Alaska

 Looking for Alaska by John Green. (Dutton Books for Young Readers, 3 March 2005).

John Green's debut novel is the story of Miles Halter, who is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. 

He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” 

Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Awards and accolades include:

• Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award
• A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
• A New York Times Bestseller •
• A USA Today Bestseller
• NPR’s Top Ten Best-Ever Teen Novels 
• TIME magazine’s 100 Best Young Adult Novels of All Time
• A PBS Great American Read Selection

Looking for Alaska has been banned and challenged since its publication over 20 years ago.  Reasons include: depictions of “alternate sexualities” and “gender ideology” (despite the absence of  LGBTQIA+ characters); containing sexually explicit encounters in detail; bad language; and normalizing dishonesty, hazing, underage drinking, and smoking.

To see Unite Against Book Bans' Book Résumé for the book, click here.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  (Simon Pulse, 30 September 2025).

Chbosky's debut novel  follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. 

First dates, family drama, and new friends. 

Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. 

Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days of growing up.

As well as being a NYT bestseller,  The Perks of Being a Wallflower received several accolades, including  

• ALA Best Book for Young Adults
• ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults - Top Ten 
• ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been challenged and banned since its original publication in 1999, for being sexually explicit, and having LGBTQIA+ content while mentioning rape, drugs and profanity.

To see the Intellectual Freedom Blog's spotlight on this book, click here.

The Hate U Give

 The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.  (Clarion Books, 28 February 2017).

Angie Thomas' debut novel was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.  

It's the story of sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, who lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. 

The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. 

The Hate U Give won the William C. Morris Award, and was a Printz Honor book as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor Book.

The Hate U Give was banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda.

To see the Unite Against Book Bans book resume for The Hate U Give, click here.

George Takei

As well as being a multi-hyphenate (see below the photo), George Takei is the honorary chairman of ALA's Banned Books Week this year.

"Mr. Takei is recognized as an award-winning actor, outspoken civil rights activist, social media icon, and New York Times–bestselling author. He has leveraged his popularity as a star of the Star Trek franchise and a social media influencer to advocate for several causes, including the rights of Japanese Americans and LGBTQIA+ individuals." *

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinge, and Steven Scott.  Illustrated by Harmony Becker.

In 1942, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor,  ordered the "relocation" of every single person of Japanese descent in the country.  

This powerful graphic novel is George Takei's firsthand account of living for years in ramshackle dwellings under the watch of armed guards.  

This book has been banned repeatedly around the US, including Pennsylvania (in 2021, as part of a campaign against teaching about the racial history of America) and most recently in Tennessee. 

*Banned Books Week

October 5 - 11 is Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week was launched  by the American Library Association in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. 

Held in the last week of September or first week of October, the annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.*

Each day, for the remainder of the week, Stuff and Nonsense plans to highlight a book that has been challenged or banned.  

Stay tuned!

*bannedbooksweek.org/about

September favorites

Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure by Rhys Bowen.  Lake Union Publishing, 5 August 2025.

Surrey, England, 1938. After thirty devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s appeal for divorce. It’s Ellie’s opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She’s taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora—each needing escape—impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France.

With the Rhône surging beside them, they have nowhere to be and everywhere to go. Until the Bentley breaks down in the inviting fishing hamlet of Saint Benet. Here, Ellie rents an abandoned villa in the hills, makes wonderful friends among the villagers, and finds herself drawn to Nico, a handsome and enigmatic fisherman. As for unexpected destinations, the simple paradis of Saint Benet is perfect. But fates soon change when the threat of war encroaches.

Lightning in a Mason Jar by Catherine Mann.  Lake Union Publishing, 1 July 2025.

Since Bailey Rae Rigby’s adoptive aunt Winnie passed, she thingks Bent Oak, South Carolina, doesn’t have much of a hold on her anymore. 

Bailey Rae aims to settle the small estate and, armed with her aunt’s inspiring personal cookbook, move to Myrtle Beach and buy a food truck. Everything goes awry when a distraught young mother arrives in town clutching a copy of that same cookbook. Embedded inside is a code that promises a safe place in Bent Oak for desperate women on the run. For Bailey Rae it opens up a world of questions about Winnie.

Winnie Ballard’s story reaches back fifty years—one of a Southern debutante’s harrowing marriage, of her escape and reinvention, and the galvanizing friendship of three resilient women who overcame their traumas, created shelter, and found purpose. But there’s more to Winnie’s deliverance and long-held secrets than Bailey Rae imagines.

The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin.  Hanover Square Press, 26 August 2025.

London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations, three women receive a mysterious invitation to an afternoon tea at the home of the reclusive Lady Duxbury. Beneath the genteel facade of the gathering lies a secret book club—a sanctuary where they can discover freedom, sisterhood, and the courage to rewrite their stories.

Eleanor Clarke, a devoted mother suffocating under the tyranny of her husband. Rose Wharton, a transplanted American dollar princess struggling to fit the mold of an aristocratic wife. Lavinia Cavendish, an artistic young woman haunted by a dangerous family secret. All are drawn to the enigmatic Lady Duxbury, a thrice-widowed countess whose husbands’ untimely deaths have sparked whispers of murder.

As the women form deep, heartwarming friendships, they uncover secrets about their marriages, their pasts, and the risks they face. Their courage is their only weapon in the oppressive world that has kept them silent, but when secrets are deadly, one misstep could cost them everything.

Dear Miss Lake (The Emmy Lake Chronicles #4) by A. J. Pearce. Scribner, 8 August 2025.

In July of 1944,Journalist Emmy Lake’s career is soaring. Woman’s Friend magazine is a huge success, and she is finally realizing her dream of becoming a Lady War Correspondent. On the personal front, Emmy’s husband Charles has been posted closer to home, and they and their friends Bunty and Harold have escaped to the countryside for a few precious summer days. They all know how lucky they are.

But after nearly five years of war, the nation is struggling. The “Yours Cheerfully” advice column receives more letters than ever, and even though it looks like the war might finally be over by Christmas, the situation is far from resolved. For Emmy and her team, it’s all about pulling together and pushing on. But then disaster strikes. Soon Emmy finds herself facing her greatest battle yet.