Blog Post 2: Multicultural Literature: Ban This Book

 Ban This Book written by Alan Gratz is a book that shows a young girl standing up against censorship in her school by starting her own banned books library for all of the children at her school. She fights against both ill-hearted adult figures and against herself in an attempt to stand up and fight for what she believes.

Ban This Book is a Contemporary Realistic Fictional Book. We can see this as the checklist includes that the story is plausible, which ist would be as the books mentioned have actually been censored or removed from libraries before or currently. There is a well-defined conflict in the novel that Amy Anne is trying to fight against the banning of the books in the library. Finally, we see the characterization of all these characters and the representation of multiple races, genders, and ages throughout the story.

An activity which would be great for students reading this book is to find out if any books have been banned in their own school libraries and find out why. If there is the assignment may be to write about why these books were banned and have a discussion if they should or shouldn't be to inspire the students just as Amy Anne inspired her classmates and school board.

I believe this book sends a powerful message, but also includes characters from all walks of life, nationalities, races, backgrounds, genders, and ages which allows for the young reader to see this multicultural storyline and allow them to be more open-minded as a result.