This Book Won't Burn (YA fiction)

     With Banned Books Week coming up so soon Samira Ahmed's This Book Won't Burn is a very timely read.

     To Noor it had seemed like a normal December day. There was nothing alarming in her father's demeanor as he headed off to work...

     ...never to return. The note he left said "I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore."

     "The cruel act of not being loved back by the person you love the most burns like white-hot phosphorus. Maybe it's not that there was no love, just not enough. Maybe they loved themselves more than they loved you. They might've promised they'd walk through fire for you, and you realized too late that they were the one lighting the match."

     Now Noor is enrolled at a new high-school in the last quarter of her senior year. Her mother reacted to being abandoned by selling the family's Chicago home and moving with her daughters--Noor and her little sister, Amal--to a small town. Noor has no plans to adjust--just do whatever she has to do to get by until she can take off for college. 

     Only her second day of school she sees that hundreds of books are being pulled from the school library shelves. Under a new school district policy a book is removed if even one person finds it offensive. And you can probably guess what books were being found offensive. Those by queer and BIPOC authors. 

     Noor hadn't planned on making friends or getting involved. But censorship is a bridge too far. Fighting it is in her mind the right thing to do. 

     This earns her some pretty vindictive enemies in high places: her principal, the school board president who has aspirations for higher offices, and the entire membership of the Liberty Mom's & Dads. She'd pretty much expected that. What she didn't see coming was her formerly activist mom pressuring her to not rock the boat. 

     But she isn't alone. She's being joined by teen and adult allies who share her passion and commitment and refusal to give up.

     This powerful David v. Goliath narrative will appeal to (and hopefully inspire) teen and adult social justice minded readers. 

On a purrrsonal note, Noor would love ❤️ this blog. It's all about promoting the very important books the Liberty Moms & Dads and their real life counterparts would love to ban and burn 🔥. I got an inspiration from Ahmed's book. In it Noor wears a shirt that says "I read banned books." For Banned Books Week I'm going to decorate a shirt to say "I review banned books."

A great big shout out goes out to Ahmed for this clarion call to action.

Jules Hathaway 

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