Review: BANNED TOGETHER: OUR FIGHT FOR READER'S RIGHTS

Banned Together:Our Fight For Reader's Rights is a collection of essays, short stories, memoirs, graphic novels/biographies, poems, and lists of books and resources by YA authors who have recently found themselves in the same club -- authors with at least one banned book.

The editor, Ashley Hope Pérez, the the author of a 2016 Printz Honor book, Out of Darkness. Her book has become one of the most banned or challenged books since 2021. She and sixteen authors and illustrators share their personal narratives to clever comebacks aimed at censorship, all "confronting the high-stakes question of what is lost when books are taken away from young readers."

When I was a teen librarian I would always make a big deal of the perils of censorship during the ALA Banned Books Week -- this year's dates are Oct. 5-11, 2025. I would place posters around the school and do all kinds of provocative announcements to encourage students to come to library to learn more. Some kids would arrive ready to do battle with me, thinking I was the one doing the censoring. Those were fun, teachable moments. Ultimately students understood that I was a firm believer in reading choices and that we needed a variety of books in the library which would speak to all members of our student body. If they were offended by a book or by its subject matter they didn't have to read it, but that didn't mean others wouldn't appreciate its message and it should be available for them. 

I wish I'd had Banned Together as a resource for me, something I could get into the hands of students so they would start to fully understand that detrimental effects that banning books has on all children, our future leaders and decision-makers.

Ashley Hope Pérez says in welcome letter at the beginning of the book,

I am so excited you are holding this book! I have been dreaming of an anthology like this since 2021, whyn my novel Out of Darkness became one of the most banned books in the US. It has been removed again and again from school libraries like yours, targeted by misguided adults who rarely bother to read the books they criticize. Book banners went hard for Out of Darkness, but they have also targets many others. Thousands of books. Books carefully selected by trained librarians. Books that readers have a right to access.

Book banning increased more than 1,500 present between 2021 and 2023. "From July 2021 to June 2023 PEN America documented a total of 5,894 books banned across 4 states and 247 public school districts. These bans restricted access to the work of 2,598 authors, illustrators, and translator" (10). And things are getting worse. Several states are making more and more restrictive laws. For example Utah now requires all school districts in the state to remove a book once it has been banned in three districts. If the topic has something to do with people of color, or has LGBTQ+ characters, it is more likely to be banned. It an author is female, a person of color, or an LGBTQ+ individual, the books are more likely to be banned than those written by straight, white men. Kelly Jensen, writing for Book Riot, gives some tips for things a teen can do to fight book bans on page 15. This is one of my favorite parts of this anthology -- there are so many helpful lists of tips and resource.

It just so happens that on page 56 it is Ashley Hope Pérez speaking again. Here she explains why she wrote the poem "Dancing with Haters":

Whether I'm, dealing with book bans or writing novels, I use words to transform pain, to dance away hate and injustice. My books address the harsh realities that many teens face. Once I put those hardships on the page, I have the chance to transform them. It's difficult, and often uncomfortable, but I know that it matters. Sure, the haters will be back, but I will free myself from their words as many times as I need to.

In this anthology several of the authors wrote essays about events which happened at some point in their life. Events that impacted their self-esteem or their health. For example, Bill Konigsberg, in his essay entitled "Groomer," talks about his first sexual encounter with an older man who was his teacher. A super uncomfortable topic, but one that needs to have the light shined upon it. Elana K Arnold wrote about when she was sexually assaulted in college in her essay "The Things, the Things that Happened, The Things that Happened to Me." You can bet readers of this essay would squirm, but imagine you are a girl and something like this happened to you, wouldn't you want to find yourself in the pages of a book rather than be made to feel, for the rest of your life, that you are alone?

Others wrote short stories or graphic stories which carried a one-two punch. One of my favorites is "Mature Themes" by Marina Omi. In it Omi illustrates an event that changed her life. She was a lonely, immature eleven-year-old when she happened upon a teacher who was cleaning out some old books from his classroom. He told her she could have any of them, but some might have mature themes. She selected Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. Yes, it had mature themes but it showed her a way to brace herself against the bad stuff by reframing it as ridiculous. From this book she found other books which helped her. "By trusting me with a book with mature themes, my teacher changed, and perhaps saved, my life" (125). She became a reader of banned books and then an author, just like her hero Kurt Vonnegut, and yes one of her books has been banned.

I guess none of us really know what kind of impact our actions have on others. If a book we review or tell someone about will make a difference for that person in a positive way. Or what will happen if we do not speak up. If we hear about book banners in our community and we don't do anything, don't say anything, isn't that the same as saying we agree with their actions?

Book banners love to call books that contain some sexual content as pornographic or obscene. But just because there is sex doesn't make it porn. There is a legal definition of obscenity which can be determined by applying the Miller Test to it.  Here is the part of the Miller Test that applies to books: "The work, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value" (235). think about that: Serious literary, artistic, political, or scientistic value (SLAPS, so you can remember it) and TAKEN AS A WHOLE. No, book banners, reading one passage out of context does not count!

I love this book and it's message. Every library should have a copy. Check to see if your high school and/or public library has one. If they don't, encourage them to buy it. Read it yourself. Be armed for battle...a battle for all of our rights to read whatever books we choose...a battle for the minds of children today!

Start planning ahead. What banned book are you going to read and review during Banned Books Week this coming October 5-11th? (Check out the PEN America Top Ten Banned Books list here.

My rating 5 stars.

Pérez, Ashley Hope, editor. Debbie Fong, illustrator. Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights. Holiday House, New York, 2025.

-Anne