Oops! I missed Banned Books Week

Attack of the Black Rectangles ~ by Amy Sarig King, 2022, children's fiction, 272 pages

When Mac first opens his classroom copy of Jane Yolen's The Devil’s Arithmetic and finds some words blacked out, he thinks it must be a mistake.  But then when he and his friends discover what the missing words are, he's outraged.  Someone in his school is trying to prevent kids from reading the full story.  But who?

Even though his unreliable dad tells him not to get so emotional about a book (or anything else), Mac has been raised by his mom and grandad to call out things that are wrong.  He and his friends head to the principal's office to protest the censorship, but her response doesn't take them seriously.  So many adults want Mac to keep his words to himself.  Mac's about to see the power of letting them out.  Amy Sarig King shows all the ways truth can be hard, but still worth fighting for.

I put this book on reserve, thanks to Helen's post about how good it was (4.5 of 5.0).  I'm next to get the book at my library.  I missed Banned Books Week this year (Sept. 18 - 24, 2022), but I will continue to read banned books.  This also means I just HAD to reserve Jane Yolen's The Devil’s Arithmetic, the book that was all blacked out in that novel above.

The Devil’s Arithmetic ~ by Jane Yolen, 1988, historical fiction for children (Poland), 170 pages

Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland.  Hannah is tired of holiday gatherings — all her family ever talks about at every Jewish holiday is the past.  But this year's Passover Seder will be different.  Hannah will be mysteriously transported into the past, and only she knows the unspeakable horrors that await.