Ban This Book

Well-behaved women seldom make history.

It all started the day Amy Anne Ollinger tried to check out her favorite book in the whole world, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, from the school library. That’s when Mrs. Jones, the librarian, told her the bad news: her favorite book was banned! All because a classmate’s mom thought the book wasn’t appropriate for kids to read.

Amy Anne decides to fight back by starting a secret banned book library out of her locker. But soon things get out of hand, and Amy Anne finds herself on the front line of an unexpected battle over book banning, censorship, and who has the right to decide what she and her fellow students can read. In the end, her only recourse might be to try to beat the book banners at their own game. Because after all, once you ban one book, you can ban them all…

Starscape | August 2017 | Ages 8 and up

Praise

Gratz delivers a book lover’s book that speaks volumes about kids’ power to effect change at a grassroots level.

—Publishers Weekly

An inspiring story about “good trouble” that’s worth the consequences.

—Booklist

A stout defense of the right to read.

—Kirkus

Awards

2018-2019 North Carolina Battle of the Books
2019-2020 White Nile Award
2020 Connecticut Nutmeg Book Award Winner

2018-2019 Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award Nominee
2019-2020 Arkansas Charlie May Simon Children’s Book Award Nominee
2019-2020 Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Nominee
2019 Der LovelyBooks Leserpreis finalist (German translation)
2020 Action Books Club selection
2022 Book Bank of Venezuela Finalist (Spanish translation)
2022-2023 Atrapallibres Finalist (Catalan translation)