Why You Should Read The Most Banned Book In America

Maia Kobabe is an American writer and cartoonist. Kobabe is the author of ‘Gender Queer’ a graphic memoir published in 2019. The book recounts Kobabe’s journey from adolescence to adulthood and the author’s exploration of gender identity and sexuality, ultimately identifying as being outside of the gender binary.  

At first, the book received a small printing but in 2020, Kobabe was awarded with an Alex Award given by the American Library Association. After that, Kobabe’s memoir started to be included in the school libraries and soon after that the book was targeted by conservative associations to be banned from the school libraries. And those attacks have succeeded, at least now. ‘Gender Queer’ is now the most banned book in public schools libraries in America. 

Kobabe’s book is being targeted with the excuse that is a “pornographyc book adressed to children”, that is false, first, because the book is not a children book but a piece of work intended to be read by a young adult audience, and second of all, because althoug it has sexual scenes and descriptions, it is not a pornographyc book. Kobabi’s book is a young adult piece that finally understands the  struggle so many people have with gender. It is a book that tells its readers ‘you are not a freak, you are not alone or wrong for feeling this way.’