Lula Dean's Little Library Of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

 

Every town has one and you're lucky if your town only has one.  Troy, Georgia, has Lula Dean.  Lula's husband has passed away, her children grown and gone.  She spends her time spying on her neighbors and spreading rumors, still trying to make up for not being chosen to be a cheerleader in high school.  Her arch enemy is Beverly Underwood who is popular in the town and who was the person who denied Lula high school fame.

Lula has limited success until she hits on the idea of banning books.  It's getting news everywhere and she's sure it will work in Troy as well.  Soon she has created a committee to list all the books that should be banned and then swooped into the school library and carted off any book that talks about sex, being gay, or race relations.  But what can people read instead?

Lula comes up with the idea of setting up a free library in her yard.  She fills its with books on how to crochet, how a Southern woman should behave and other boring tomes.  She is proud of her little library but she doesn't know the secret.  Beverly's daughter has snuck over one night and replaced the books inside the covers with books about sex and the truth about slavery and Jim Crow.  Soon the books taken from the library are wildly popular and the townspeople are showing signs of standing up to Lula.

Kirsten Miller is known for her ability to write humorous books about topics that create conflict.  She started as a writer of children's books about female detectives that solve mysteries but recently is taking on more serious topics.  In this novel, not only is the controversy of banning books discussed but the idea of removing statues of men who were complicit in enslaving and treating minorities badly but who were wealthy and powerful enough to seem like role models at the time.  The people in Troy find ways to come together and own their shared histories while defeating the narrow minded individuals that would limit reading material.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.