Best Of February: Banned Books
All Of It - A podcast by WNYC
[REBROADCAST FROM February 2, 2022] The subject of book banning has been in the news after a Tennessee school board voted to remove the graphic book Maus from the curriculum. The discussion has shed new light on the kinds of books being banned from schools around the country. One of the novels that has often been cited on the American Library Associations list of Top 10 Most Challenged books is Laurie Halse Anderson's 1999 novel Speak, which tells the story of a high school girl dealing with trauma after she is sexually assaulted. Halse Anderson has been an outspoken advocate for intellectual freedom, and has been honored for her work by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English. She joins us to discuss this new wave of book banning.
