HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO ME!! Or really, happy book birthday to my newest novel for kids, Not Another Banned Book!

While this is a stand alone novel for middle grade readers (around 10-14, though I hope everyone will read it!), folks who know and love my earlier books, like It Wasn’t Me and the Fletcher books, might find some familiar characters! Have fun revisiting old friends (I’m looking at you, Alice!) and finding new ones.

It’s a book about book banning, and yeah, that was exactly as fun to write about as it sounds. (Okay, that’s not true…it was a lot more fun than it sounds. There are shenanigans, teen death-metal bands, three-toddlers-in-a-trenchcoat level bad ideas, and a staged reenactment of a promposal with plastic flamingos…it was actually a lot of fun to write!)

But it’s true I wrote it because I am angry, I wrote a main character who’s also angry, and I hope it makes you a little bit angry too. I also hope it gives you energy to fight back, and the knowledge that you’re not alone in this fight. I also hope it reminds all of us adults that the kids…the kids are more than alright. They’re freaking KILLING IT, and we just have to join them and keep up.

What’s this book about? It’s about Molly, an eighth grader who has a lot going on in her life, and who counts on her favorite teacher, Ms. Lewiston, and her low-key, no-holds-barred, talk-about-everything book club as a safe place. But when someone anonymously complains about some of the books, Ms. Lewiston is placed on leave, the books are removed, and book club is suspended…indefinitely. And now Molly is really, really mad. Together with her friends, they try protests and sleuthing, public awareness campaigns and more, but all they really find out is that the censorship battles they’re fighting are happening all around the country. As Molly deals with new challenges at home, she finds it hard to open up to her friends, and more frustrated than ever that her book club has been taken away from her when she needs it most. But with the help of her favorite books, a whole lot of candy, and a group of friends who won’t give up on her, Molly learns where and how to fight back. She realizes that just because she can’t fix everything, it doesn’t mean she has to do nothing.

A book that Kirkus reviews calls “an ode to how books can be windows, mirrors, and sliding doors,” Not Another Banned Book is about being angry but not giving up. It’s about finding people to fight by your side, even when you feel alone. And it’s about how we all — every one of us — deserve to find ourselves in the story.

I hope you read it. I hope you share a copy with your favorite teacher, or librarian, or put one in a Little Free Library in your town. And I hope if you, like me, are angry about book banning, you’ll join the fight. There are a lot of us and we don’t have to do it alone. Organizations like PEN America, The American Library Association (ALA), and The National Coalition Against Censorship are all doing the work, and have tons of resources for teachers, parents, students, authors, and concerned citizens.

So yeah…it’s on us to fight back, just like it’s on Molly and her crew. It’s on us — and we’ve got this.

You can find the buy links here! Happy reading!