‘Maus’ Among Latest Titles Banned in Some American School Districts

A Tennessee school board last week voted to remove the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel Maus from an 8th grade course on the Holocaust. And that’s just one of many examples of recent bans instituted by parents, activists, school boards and lawmakers. According to the American Library Association, it has seen an “unprecedented” number of book bans in the last year. But unlike previous waves of book bannings, this latest wave has a different tone and tenor; bans are often targeted at books that center on the experience of diverse characters or are written by authors of color. Politicians like Texas Governor Greg Abbott are also using bans as campaign platforms to galvanize right wing voters. And while many bans are advocated by conservatives, there are also efforts by parents, like those in a Burbank, California school district, to remove books like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Of Mice and Men” from the curriculum because of the racist depictions in those books. We’ll look at why book banning is spreading across the country and what might be done to reverse the trend.

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