Funny Friday - Hallowe'en Edition

Speed Bump                         by Dave Coverly

- originally published 27 October 2025

Funny Friday

 

- originally published in The Guardian, 7 July 2025

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