Reading Banned Books and a Nonfiction Review: Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

When I was a librarian, I was cognizant each year that Banned Books Week was approaching. I had a big display in my library, we did lunch time readings of banned books, and I found myself talking with students about the broader topic of censorship (as a former history teacher, this was also an opportunity to bring in history). Now that I don't work in public education, I find that Banned Books Week sneaks up on me each year and sometimes I don't even read a banned book. Not this year!

If you are interested in which books and are banned most frequently and why, check out the American Library Association's information on the top 10 books banned in 2023 (note that all are due to sexual content, mostly LGBTQIA. Why do people care so much about who other people love/have sex with?!). This link is general information about why, where, and by whom books are banned. Here's a little peek at the information for 200-2009

So many wonderful books are on these lists! Are you doing anything for Banned Book Week? Do you have favorite banned books that you've read in the past?

Title: Gender Queer: A Memoir

Author: Maia Kobabe

Year published: 2019

Category: Adult Nonfiction (graphic novel, memoir)

Pages: 240 pages

Rating: 5 out of 5

Location: (my 2024 Google Reading map): USA (CA)

Summary: In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.

Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

Review: I haven't read a graphic novel in a while and this was a good one to read. Not only is it the most banned book of 2023, but it won an ALA Alex Award (adult books that are good for YA readers) and an ALA Stonewall Award Honor Book. With that, I dove right in and was hooked.

I told my daughter that I was reading this book and she asked what the difference between an autobiography and a memoir is. You know, I wasn't really sure so I looked it up. "An autobiography is a comprehensive account of a person's entire life, while a memoir usually focuses on a specific period or event in a person's life." That makes sense to me and explains why I like memoirs better than autobiographies.

This book is so well done. Maia shows the difficulty eir had when eir was figuring out that eir didn't like being a girl, didn't want to be a boy, wondered if there was a third option and what that would look like. Eir also shares eir thoughts about kissing, making out, and sex (and how eir doesn't want any of it). There is so much for people to learn about, think about, and talk about in this memoir. I think the most important message is that there is no right answer for everyone and we should be open to hearing how others feel, identify, and how they would like to be addressed.

Challenges for which this counts: 

• Alphabet (Title)--Q
• Nonfiction