The Banned Book Club - May 2026 Book

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Hey guys, it's Peter and welcome to my channel Peter likes books. And today I am making my announcement for the May book for the banned and challenged book club. I actually just changed my mind at the very last minute. Um I had a book picked out for this month and I was going through I was Googling stuff about trying to find the article where it talked about this book being banned and challenged and then it took me back to To Kill a Mockingbird and it took me back to Catcher in the Rye and then I thought, "Oh, should we read Should I reread one of those for this month?" And then I was going through all these different things. Lord of the Flies just came out on Netflix. I was like, "Should we read Lord of the Flies?" And I was like, "You know what? I want to read something that I either don't remember reading or I think that a lot of people haven't read but is like referenced a lot." So I won't tell you what book that I was going to pick for May. Um but I will tell you that we will probably be reading it for June or July.

[00:00:56]So if you have any suggestions for the banned and challenged book club, any book that has been banned or challenged in any school system in the United States, put it in the comment section below. If you If you Google it, tons of books come up. Um I do want to make this announcement really quickly. Um well, two announcements actually.

[00:01:11]Is that um a lot of people in my last video when I did my reading update, not a lot of people but I'd say three or four, were like I I mentioned that I was going to maybe do all of my reviews of the previous that January, February, March, and April banned books all together to kind of like catch up. And there were a couple people that were like, "Oh, I read the books. I really wish that you would do individual reviews to those." So I heard that and I was like, "They're absolutely right. I think each of those books deserves a full review of it." So I will be doing a full review starting with Identical.

[00:01:41]That will probably be the next video that I do over here. Um and I'm going to go through each of the banned books and I'm going to do a review and a reaction to each of the banned books. I'm not going to combine them together. So this month of May I will be getting caught up on all of the banned book reviews. I finished all of them except for Speak.

[00:01:57]I'm like halfway through Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson which was the April book.

[00:02:02]No, Perks of Being a Wallflower which was the March book. So I'm caught up on all of them except for that. So I'll be doing those reviews individually over here. Just want to make that clear.

[00:02:09]Thank you guys for um that suggestion. I really appreciate it.

[00:02:13]The other thing I wanted to say is I was going through Instagram and I follow a lot of bookstagrammers on Instagram and somebody said something about talking about it's almost kind of like a brag to talk about reading banned books. I thought this was such a pertinent point. And they were talking about how like, you know, today people be like, you know, you carry the bags that say like I read banned books and stuff like that. And they said, "All that's great because it brings attention to like banned and challenged books, but the reality is that those books remain banned and challenged and that the reading of banned and challenged books should be more about us talking about the issues of why they're banned and challenged and talking about the fact that, you know, just because we're talking about like and especially because as adults, most of us, you know, we have the choice whether or not we're going to read banned and challenged books. At least in the United States we still have a choice whether or not we're going to go buy those books or read those books, you know, online or on audiobooks or whatever. But a lot of kids can't go to their school libraries and check those books out because they're not available if they're banned from that school system. And so what this bookstagrammer was talking about was yes, it's great that we're bringing attention to banned books, right? Which is really the purpose of me doing this whole thing, but this kind of like checked me a little bit. And it was like, "But we need to be having conversations about why these books are banned and why these stories are important that they're being told because they show diverse, you know, voices of marginalized communities and storylines that people don't want out there." And you know, for a lot of different reasons and like why are we afraid of stories and why are we afraid of getting these things out there, you know? Is it because then people believe like this could happen again or, you know, whatever. Um are we educating people on things that they don't know?

[00:03:52]And I thought it was a really valid point. Like we need to be talking more about why like the history of why books are banned and things like that. So when I picked the book that we're going to read for uh May's uh banned and challenged book, I have to tell you I have picked this book up several times in my life and I have I've never finished this book all the way through.

[00:04:11]Um this is one of my very, very favorite people in the entire world that passed away several years ago. I quote her often. I love her so much but I've never fully finished this book and that book is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. It was published in 1969.

[00:04:27]Um I looked up a little history about this book so that we could educate ourselves a little bit more on this book and why it was banned. Um I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou um and it this is one of the books that is heavily, heavily, heavily banned in the United States.

[00:04:43]Maya Angelou is one of America's best-known poets having recited her work at President Bill Clinton's inauguration and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. But her autobiographical book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings stands out for its long-term cultural impact and the many times it's been challenged in public schools.

[00:05:02]The book was inspired by the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and highlights Angelou's upbringing in the South more than 30 years earlier. Its themes of rape, same-sex relationships, teenage pregnancy, and race relations have prompted decades of challenges and removals.

[00:05:20]How has it been banned?

[00:05:22]In 2021 the Palmer, Alaska School Board voted to remove the book from the school curriculum, but the board later reversed its decision after community protest.

[00:05:30]According to the 1998 Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds, an Alabama State Textbook Committee rejected the book in 1983 saying it preaches bitterness and hatred against whites.

[00:05:41]Another book banned in the USA: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries found that in 1990 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was removed from required reading curriculum for ninth graders in Bremerton, Washington due to parental objections to its content and removed from an eighth grade curriculum in Biggs, California in 1991 for similar reasons.

[00:06:02]What's the First Amendment issue?

[00:06:04]Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness um a and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed. And this is on an article by freedomforum.org, 15 of the most famous banned books in the US. So this is 15 of the most famous banned books. On here is also Shakespeare, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Finn, um Ulysses by James Joyce, Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Um I did not realize how I mean when I was growing up, To Kill a Mockingbird, which for those of you that do not know, is my absolute favorite book and movie of life. I did not realize how many complete bans and total challenges it has in the United States, but it was required reading when I was growing up.

[00:06:55]Um Anyway, let me pull it this book up really quick and read the synopsis for you. Um I have read the beginning of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings so many times, but let me pull it up on Goodreads so I can read the synopsis for you. I know why.

[00:07:10]Uh Please don't be slow today. Okay, here there it is.

[00:07:15]Um I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou's debut memoir and a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise as seen on PBS's American Masters. Here is a book as joyous and painful and mysterious and memorable as childhood itself.

[00:07:35]I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right.

[00:07:43]Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small southern town, Maya and her brother Bailey endure the the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local um white trash. At 8 uh At 8 years old and this is in quote That's in quotation. At 8 years old and back at her mother's side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. So I think I have like six copies of this spread out all over the house. My mom used to give me copies of it. So I'm really excited to read this book. Let me know if you're going to read it in the comment section below.

[00:08:40]Um also, if there was one book that you would prefer for me to do my reaction to over the others, I I was going to start in order of cuz Identical was the January book, but if there was another book you'd like me to get to first, I can do that. Let me know in the comment section below.

[00:08:53]Um I love you guys and I will see you tomorrow. Bye.