It’s a blog entry by Jenny Lawson, about one of her books. I haven’t been able to open her WP blog for a few weeks, now; I get the page that says it’s an unsafe connection. I either don’t know how, or can’t get a whole post in the WP Reader, but I did get this whole post in email, so I’ll copy & paste it here. Jenny is funny, but this is not good news about Texas and literacy.
 The BloggessRead on blog or Reader Today they banned my book. It was not the first. It won’t be the last. Here’s what I want you to know .  By thebloggess on March 25, 2026 |
| This is not what I wanted to write. I wanted to write about how I’m about to go on book tour for my new book in a few days. Instead I am writing about the fact that I was just informed that my first book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was banned from the high school library of a nearby town I love and visit often. Honestly, I’m not that upset about my book being banned. I’ve had so many letters from young people who felt they’d been helped by my books but it does have some profanity and so I can understand the reasoning even if I disagree with it. What I am upset about is the stories about how New Braunfels ISD has pulled more that 1,500 books from their school library shelves after the Texas’ Republican-backed book banning law (senate bill 13) passed. The bill ordered all public school libraries to review books for “profane” and “indecent” content and I guess Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was deemed too dangerous for high schoolers. Weirdly, my book was not on the original list of the 1,500 books triggered for review on March 13 but a week ago it was added to the New Braunfels ISD website as being removed for being “non-compliant”. (I’ve been called worse.) I guess 1,500 books weren’t enough. But then, it’s never enough for book banners.This is going to happen more and more. It used to be a rarer thing…almost a badge of courage to have a book banned. Now? It’s everywhere…this war against books and ideas and people. Reading is how you fall in love with people different from you, and how you develop compassion for them…because if you love them, you want to protect them. But there are some people who don’t want you to love others. They need you to fear them. Books save lives. They have saved mine. Books are safety nets for so many of us, and right now those nets are being cut.The list of banned books is incredible in length and includes so many that I adore. Equally upsetting is the fact that so many classics that shaped me have been pulled from the shelves and placed into restricted sections where they can only be accessed by students enrolled in Advanced Placement Literature, because God forbid a normal high school student would want to read the works of dangerous writers like *checks the list* Jane Austen and Emily Brontë (whose name they misspelled). Sometimes it feels like we’re living in A Brave New World (restricted) and that the book burning of Fahrenheit 451 (restricted) is closer than ever, with no Sense and Sensibility (restricted) about what this will cost. It feels like we’re going through The Crucible (restricted) and are caught in a Catch-22 (restricted) where we can’t convince people how terrible it is to ban books because they either don’t know the power of books or they absolutely know it and fear it. It’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (banned) how book banners go out on some kind of A Discovery of Witches (banned) and fight against Acceptance (banned) and of diversity, while we are losing All The Beauty in the World (banned). America is a Beautiful Country (banned) in so many ways, but we will lose so much of that beauty if we don’t make Changes (banned) to cherish and embrace and grow what makes us Educated (banned) and compassionate. The diversity of voices is necessary…it is a reflection of who we are and who we want to be. A plethora of ideas and voices and experiences…This Is What America Looks Like (banned). We can’t just pretend that Everything’s Fine (banned) and that this is just an overreaction of Anxious People (banned). Do you think this is what the founding fathers like Alexander Hamilton (banned) envisioned? I’m going to stop here because I’m sure you can see that this dumb paragraph is WAY TOO EASY TO WRITE because there are so many books they have issues with and you probably get the picture already but y’all….Jane Eyre? The Color Purple? The Odyssey? Crime and Punishment?? THIS IS WHAT WE’RE SAVING TEENAGERS FROM? So what can you do? You can buy books that are being targeted, especially those written by the LGBTQ+ authors or authors of color because they are being targeted the most. Supporting those authors tells publishing to keep producing those books because they are needed. Publishers will lose money if libraries become afraid to purchase books and so we need to make sure that they know the audience is there and greedy for diverse voices. Get a library card and start checking out those books and more, to prove to the government that libraries need funding and that people care about reading. Read to your children. Read in front of your children. Talk online about the books that you love so that your passion ignites others. If you’re a parent you can get involved with your school to make sure this doesn’t happen in your school and you can protest it if it happens. You can vote out the people who seem to be obsessed with freedom, but mainly when it’s their freedom to take away yours and your children’s. You can run against school board members who are book banners and show up at the meetings. You can keep updated by following organizations like PEN AMERICA, or the Texas Freedom to Read Project or Authors Against Book Bans. *deep breath* This is probably filled with typos and is not really the sort of thing that I should be writing the day before I leave to start my book tour but it’s important. When books and thoughts and people are suppressed, we all lose. Keep fighting the good fight, friends. It’s worth it. Comment |
Scottie's Playtime 
Some thing’s seriously wrong, when Jenny Larson gets banned. You are funny, real, honest and open. I suspect (as I said elsewhere) it may very well be the title, which to the muddy-minded could suggest something naughty going inside. I’ll wager that book was read word by word trying find the naughty bits…and sometimes when you give the wrong key to the wrong person, you end up spending weeks trying to find your bank book, your wrist watch, and your glasses…
Take heart, Jenny, They can’t ban you.
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Hi Judy. Yes, you are correct. Many of the books banned across the country were by people who never read the books but came to schools and libraries with lists from religious hate groups who would include the reasons that the people were demanding the books be removed. Often these would be so vague, like vulgar or pornographic, not age acceptable, and so on. I posted a few years ago on these groups and their mass mailing lists of books churches should try to get banned in their communities. It is just another example of religious hate groups trying to force their religious views and church doctrines on the rest of the public. I really got steamed at these groups using parental rights to ban books they claimed they did not want their kids to have access to which canceled the parental rights of parents who did want these matterials / media available to their children. Hugs
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Hi. Books save lives. They have saved mine. When we moved the third time with in 6 months to move beyond the accusations against my adoptive parent for abusing me, we ended up in a town with more cows than people. I was entered into the 2nd grade and was 7 years old. My abuse was getting more routine and less violent. I guess the adopting family did not want to leave evidence. My refuge after school to avoid going home was the local library which was new, very light and bright, and full of books for me to read and escape into. When the librarians noticed I was a voracious reader but put the books back in the racks I got them from only to look for them the next day they tried to get me a card to take them home. I had to explain I was not allowed to have books at home. Then they started letting me bring the book I was reading to the desk when the time came I needed to leave. They would keep it for me until I came back the next day to ask for it again. Sadly they knew or suspected my abuse because one of the librarians came up to me offering me a book I might want to read. It was about a boy being abused like me and how he told someone. I read the book, but I gave it back and she waited for me to say something. I had already learned the hard lesson of what telling would mean for me. I said nothing. I left. But those books gave me places and dreams to go to in my mind when being abused. I would tell myself the stories I read, and I would add myself in as a character in the story. I still use that technique still today. When I lie down to sleep or when I have no other inputs to distract my mind from the memories and the vortex, I create my stories with characters I have created and woven into stories / TV shows / movies I have seen. Books were my refuge and my inspiration that kept child Scottie safe in his mind while being abused and keeps adult Scottie safe as possible from the memories of that abuse. Hugs
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