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Fernando Alfonso III

How independent bookstores help in the fight against book banning and why it matters

Jan Bolgla and Bob Roarty have owned and operated Atlanta Vintage Books for more than 16 years. (Fernando Alfonso III/NPR)

BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — The graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl was the last book Jan Bolgla expected to see yanked off public library shelves in the 16 years since she and her husband bought a used bookstore filled with cats, artwork and, as of this past week, a banned book section.

Bolgla shared this somber observation on the eve of Banned Books Week while petting Big Boo, a Maine Coon rescue purring atop a glass case full of rare books. Near the store's entrance was a bookshelf Bolgla's sister-in-law Michele Bolgla had stocked with Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, George Orwell's 1984 and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, each of which have been or are currently banned in parts of the U.S.

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