'Adults are banning books, but they're not asking our opinions'

[Jilly_in_VA]

‘Adults are banning books, but they’re not asking our opinions’: meet the teens of the Banned Book Club


“Napoleon’s use of the sheep was notable,” says Jordan Daughtry, 14. She’s clutching a copy of Animal Farm, and referring to the authoritarian Berkshire boar who seizes control of an English acreage, before bending his fellow animals to his will.

The sheep, who represent the unwitting masses in George Orwell’s critique of Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian rule, are “ignorant buffoons”, Daughtry says.

Jordan’s sibling, Kiara Daughtry, 16, continues the thought.

“It did kind of remind me of the whole ‘stop the steal’ thing,” Kiara says, referencing the January 6 insurrection, when Donald Trump’s supporters, spurred by a wave of lies by the then president, besieged the US Capitol. “And all that nonsense.”

The Daughtrys are sitting in the back of Firefly bookstore, a gem of new and used literature in the small town of Kutztown, central Pennsylvania. Huddled together on foldout chairs, facing down a table laden with muffins, pretzels and a stuffed toy pig, they’re members of Kutztown’s Banned Book Club, which meets every two weeks to read and discuss literature that conservatives across the country are working to ban from school libraries.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/banned-book-club-pennsylvania-animal-farm
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This is just one group. I'd be part of one if I were a teen today.

[Walleye]

1. I've said it before and I mean it. The kids are all right

[Deep State Witch]

2. Young Man in A Star Trek Hoodie

I noticed the young man in a Star Trek Voyager hoodie. Good for him!

[Hekate]

3. Excellent. Let us not lose hope.

[MyOwnPeace]

4. Glad to see what they are doing!

Kutztown is not exactly in the 'Blue Belt' of Pennsylvania! Good for them!!!!

[crickets]

5. Comments from the kids in the club make it clear

they know exactly why the books are being banned.

“I think it leads to a lot of kids being a lot more closed-minded.”

Good for them for starting a club and reading the books anyway.

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R