Last year in the Young Adult Fiction genre, more than 1500 books were either challenged or banned in the United States.

The reasons they are banned vary; some because they are accused of being sexually explicit or violent...but they are worth exploring in the censorship climate we face today, especially in our education system.

Our Fourth UU Principle urges us to affirm and promote “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” What better way for our congregation to put this into action than to read a banned book?

Our Community Minister Rev. Gaye Morris will facilitate a Zoom discussion every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. this July for book readers, including high school youth who want to read these books and contribute to the group discussions. A list of the books and their discussion dates appears below. You may wish to purchase these books for yourself, but I also urge you to ask your local librarian for these titles, as a gesture of solidarity against book censorship.

If you want to register for the discussion series, please click on the link: https://onrealm.org/oruuc/Registrations/Info/c0dbc63c-4212-4e36-b75b-aea6013a534b. You can attend one, several, or all of the sessions. Registration will enable you to receive the Zoom link for that week’s discussion.

1.    Saturday July 2nd - Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison. Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit, this is a novel about overcoming cultural discrimination and social class distinctions. Mike Munoz is the lawn boy who is a few years out of high school and, after being fired from a landscaping crew, realizes he needs to act in order to change his life – if only he can figure out how. A BookBrowse review says Lawn Boy “takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young man on a journey to discover himself, a search to find the secret to achieving the American dream of happiness and prosperity.”

2.    Saturday July 9 - All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. This young-adult memoir tells of the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. The book has been banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered to be sexually explicit. Goodreads describes it as “Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color.”

3.    Saturday July 16 - Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez.

“This is East Texas, and there’s lines. Lines you cross, lines you don’t cross. That clear?” Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion—the worst school disaster in American history—as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people. This book has been banned, challenged, and restricted for depictions of abuse and because it was considered to be sexually explicit.

4.    Saturday July 23 - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

This is the story of a 16-year old girl whose childhood best friend is gunned down by a police officer. Starr Carter lives in a poor neighborhood but attends a fancy suburban prep school; when she witnesses the shooting of the unarmed teen, her life is turned upside down and her community is caught up in the uproar and chaos surrounding the fatal shooting. This book was banned and challenged for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda.

5.    Saturday July 30 – Concluding session. We end the month with a wide-ranging discussion of what freedom of speech means in the current censorship debate, and how we as UUs understand our obligation to contribute our voices and opinions to it.