John Green, the author of best-selling books such as The Fault In Our Stars and Turtles All The Way Down, has spoken out against efforts to ban one of his novels in the school district where he was once a student.
The author discussed the situation in a TikTok video he shared on Sunday (11 September). The clip includes a screenshot of a report by News 13, a cable news channel based out of Orlando, Florida.
According to that news story, Alicia Farrant, a school board candidate in Orange County, Florida, recently highlighted two books she believes should be banned from school libraries.
One of them reportedly was Looking for Alaska, Green’s 2005 debut, an award-winning coming-of-age novel set at a boarding school.
School libraries and book bans have been part of Farrant’s platform at least since October 2021, as reflected in videos she has shared on social media. In a post on 14 August 2022, she said she wanted books she deems “sexually explicit” or “pornographic” to be removed from school libraries. Some of the titles she has challenged include Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, and Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison.
Green was born in Indianapolis, Indiana but grew up in part in Orlando, Florida, where he attended school – in the same school district, he said, where Farrant is now a candidate.
“You know what’s weird?” he said in his TikTok video. “When one of the candidates for school board in the school district where you were once a student wants to ban your first novel from all schools and libraries in that school district. It’s weird on a few levels. Like, for one thing: I know some of the people involved. I remember you from middle school.”
Green added that he “just [doesn’t] think Looking for Alaska is pornography, and I think reading it that way is a little weird.”
“So, yeah. Please don’t ban my books in my hometown,” he added. “It’s really upsetting for my mom. She has to deal with all these people talking to her on Facebook now.”
The Independent has contacted Farrant for comment.
According to the nonprofit PEN America, “the scale and force of book banning in local communities is escalating dramatically” in the US. An index collated by the organization found 1,586 decisions to ban books in schools between 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022.
“Among the titles in the Index, there are common themes reflecting the recent backlash and ongoing debates surrounding the teaching and discussion of race and racism in American history, LGBTQ+ identities, and sexual education in schools,” PEN America noted.
“Of the titles in the Index, 467 contain protagonists or prominent secondary characters of color (41%), and 247 directly address issues of race and racism (22%); 379 titles (33%) explicitly address LGBTQ+ themes, or have protagonists or prominent secondary characters who are LGBTQ+; 283 titles contain sexual content of varying kinds (25%), including novels with sexual encounters as well as informational books about puberty, sex, or relationships. There are 184 titles (16%) that are history books or biographies. Another 107 titles have themes related to rights and activism (9%).”
Looking for Alaska has long been a target of book bans in schools. The book was on the 10 Most Challenged Books list collated annually by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016.
Green previously shared his thoughts on the banning of Looking for Alaska in a YouTube video in 2016. The novel was adapted into a miniseries starring Charlie Plummer and Kristine Froseth released by Hulu in 2019.
