PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2023

WORDCOUNT COMMENTARY

READ OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE Central Illinois libraries are banding together against book bans in 2023

BY JENNIFER DAVIS ILLUSTRATION BY MISSY SHEPLER

I t was September 2012, and James Klise was invited to a “Right to Read” event in Kansas to speak to eighth graders on the topic of censorship and teen books. Klise, a son of Peoria who now lives and works in Chicago as a school librar ian and burgeoning author in the Young

Adult genre, was thrilled. Until a few days later, anyway, when the school librarian, very apologetically, disinvited him. Yes, the LGBTQ+ author really was disinvited to a “Right to Read” event. The irony was not lost on him or the Chicago Tribune, which published his op-ed, or the National Coalition Against

Censorship (NCAC), which also picked up the story. What was a big deal nearly a decade ago may seem like a minor footnote in the headlines of today, with schools and libraries across the country experiencing unprecedented efforts to ban or remove books.

66 APRIL 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE