The Defense Department wants to ban hundreds of books. Here are the weirdest titles.
The Trump administration has moved to ban 596 books from schools that serve military children. This is in addition to all their ongoing support for state book bans. Though it’s uniquely upsetting because military schools can be seen as arms of the government, where free speech protections can be harder to protect.
Threatened titles include “children’s biographies of trailblazing transgender public figures. An award-winning novel reflecting on what it is like to be Black in America,” and “a series of graphic novels about the love story between a teenage gay couple.”
To meet their apparent quota, Defense Department (DD) censors seem to have applied a control F search to the whole Library of Congress. YA books with “gender,” “trans,” “racist,” “identity,” or any acronym in the title have been scrubbed from school shelves.
Counter or contextualizing histories that challenge white supremacy, like Paul Ortiz’s An African American History and Latinx History of the United States, are also on the chopping block. Ditto rhetorical question titles that tease a challenge to hegemony. Like Ronald D. Lankford’s Are America’s Wealthy Too Powerful?
All of this is pure trash, of course. But some of the censored books are real curveballs. Here are a few that surprised me on the government’s latest list.
Megha Majumdar, A Burning
Majumdar’s thrilling three-hander debuted five years ago to great acclaim. It dances with big themes re: gender, class, and political extremism. But as a literary novel—one pitched at adults, no less—it’s extra bizarre to find this one in the government’s cross-hairs.
What “ideology,” DD?
Meagan Brothers, Debbie Harry Sings in French
This YA book charts a young person’s coming-of-age under the only benevolent influence of your favorite 80s pop-punk icon.
What gives, DD? Do you just hate fun?
Kai Cheng Tom, From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea
This beautifully illustrated children’s book follows a young person with shape-shifting powers. The story affirms gender-queerness and gender-questioning. But its allegory can also be read as a general urge to embrace one’s contradictions. Also, Julie Andrews reads the audio book.
Really, DD? You’re scared of Maria von Trapp?
Ann Braden, Flight of the Puffin
This novel, from the former middle school teacher and grassroots activist Ann Braden, is about bullying. It follows four kids around the country as they investigate bad habits and embrace small acts of kindness. Though I can’t emulate their example here, this message seems pretty innocuous to me.
But maybe this one’s on the outs because it’s at cross-purposes with the military in general…?
Robie Harris & Michael Emberley, It’s Perfectly Normal
This book, a big one on my childhood shelves, first came out in 1994. And as the title suggests, it offers a pretty innocuous intro to all the things a young body can go through.
But I guess you’re anti puberty, too? Huh, DD?
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
On its publication in the previous century, Orlando enjoyed a fair bit of controversy for its allusions to same-sex love and strategic censor-dodging. The academy has since celebrated the novel with abundant queer readings. That said, it’s fiction. For grown-ups.
Also, more threats on Julie Andrews-related texts? Not in this house!
Grace Ellis & ND Stevenson & Shannon Watters & Gus Allen, Lumberjanes
I’ll be honest. I guess I have to thank the DD censors for pointing me to this series, which was not on my radar but looks like the kind of thing that would have ruined my grades in middle school. Following a set of punk-rock preteens who solve mysteries and wail on monsters at their bespoke summer camp, this series has been described as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Gravity Falls.” And I list it here for the same reason I list the others: I actually think more kids should have copies of this book.
Surprise! You’ve been AGENDA’d!
You can read the rest of the list of unobjectionable titles the government wants to take away from its military students here, and buy them in abundance on your own free time.
In the meanwhile, we send warm thoughts and props to the families fighting these bans.
