Exploring Banned Books in Ami & Alex’s 1-2 Class

In recent weeks in my and Ami's 1-2 class, we've embarked on an exploration of banned books. Our journey started with discussions about the reasons behind book bans, who enforces them, and the importance of challenging these bans by reading the books. We found that these books are often banned for depicting marginalized groups confronting their oppression or for their depictions of folks who defy societal norms, with stories featuring a diverse cast, including people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, cisgender children who are non-conforming in their gender presentation, and other marginalized identities.

After sourcing books from our classroom and local libraries, we reviewed many of these banned books, forming our own opinions about what we noticed about the story inside and gave it our own rating. We also had an opportunity to read banned books with our fifth and sixth grade "Special Friends."  Our students’ reviews, posted on the bulletin board outside of our room, will also be added to a banned book installation at the local Somerville library on our field trip on January 31st. 

We were very fortunate to have Adria Karlsson, author of My Sister, Daisy, come to our classroom to read their banned book to us. They shared their experiences as a banned book author, and gave us a preview of their next children's book. As a thank you, our students created self-portraits of themselves to inspire Adria with their on-going illustrations for the book.

This mini-unit gave students an understanding that books are banned because someone is trying to control their access to information. We are excited to use our Day of Service to write letters of support to children's book authors, libraries, and publishers to thank them for their contributions to children's literature by sharing these important stories.

Check out the bulletin board outside of the first and second grade classroom to see our reviews of some of the books we read!