Frequently Challenged/Banned Book- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

photo courtesy of Amazon

Imagine a world in which women are not allowed to read and books are burned. Such is the world that Offred lives in; serving as a Handmaid a slave living in a household where her sole purpose is to get pregnant by the man who owns her to provide a child to him and his wife.

Handmaids live a very oppressed life and if they are not able to perform their duty and produce a child, then they have very few offers, one being put to death. 

Click HERE to watch my book talk on The Handmaid's Tale

Genre: Classics

Call #: F ATW

Atwood, M. (1985). The handmaid's tale. New York, NY. Anchor Books. 

YA Graphic Novel: My Friend Jeffrey Dahmer by Derf Backderf

photo courtesy of TeachingBooks.net

In 1991, a nation was shocked by the sick and demented acts committed by the serial killer Jeffery Dahmer.  Many are still haunted by the first reports of what was discovered in Jeffery's apartment as the number of young men murdered continued to climb.
In 1991, Derf Backderf was a sitting at his office when his wife called and said, "I think a boy you went to school with in on the news." Within minutes of turning on the TV. Derf was looking at the face of a once boyhood friend, as he was being handcuffed and walked out of an apartment building and placed into a squad car.
My Friend Dahmer is a haunting tale of one man's memories of the notorious serial killer during their junior high and high school years. Follow Derf Backderf as he recants knowing Jeffery as the weird kid classmates didn't really notice and that teachers didn't really pay attention to.
Think you know the story? Read, My Friend Dahmer to see from a friend's point of view what helped to make a quiet geeky kid into one of America's most deprived serial killers.
National Bestseller
2013 ALA/YALSA Alex Award
20114 Revelation Award at Angouleme
2015 ALA/YALSA Alex Award ( Exellence in Narrative Nonfiction)

Click HERE  to watch my book talk on My Friend Dahmer.

Genre: Graphic Novels
Call # GN Bac
Backderf, D. (2012). My friend dahmer. New York. NY. Abrams Comic Arts.

Graphic Novel Display 

YA Quick Reads: IF I WAS YOUR GIRL by Meredith Russo

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If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Andrew has been bullied his entire life for being different and three years ago, he tried to end his life. When he wakes up in the hospital, Andrew hands a note to the hospital psychiatrist that reads, "I should have been a girl." 

Now Andrew is trying to his new life at a new school, in a new town, and as Amanda. Quickly Amanda makes friends with the popular girls in school and has caught the eye of two boys. Amanda's father warns her to be careful about keeping a low profile as to not draw attention to herself in order to stay safe. But as Amanda's feeling grow stronger for Grant, she can't help but want to live the normal life a high school girl. Can she trust Grant with knowing about her past life, or will the one person she does tell about her past betray her in the most public way?

Click HERE to watch my book talk on If I Was Your Girl

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Call # F Rus
Russo, M. (2016). If i was your girl. New York, NY. Flatiron Books.