Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books: A Southern Town's Battle over Banned Books

The story is set in a rural Georgia town with a Concerned Parents Committee, which determines to ban books the town's children should not read. The plot revolves around a town busybody, Lula Dean, who sets up a little free-lending library with some wholesome books, and one of the town's youth switches the books to the 'banned' books and keeps the original jackets so no one can know. As chaos ensues, the entire town is left divided. However, a group of teenagers and a few adults come together to expose Lulu and save their community from despair.

Miller narrates each story from various POVs and still does an admirable job in making their names and stories different enough for you to pick up on as you read.

As a town unites to fight for their right to read against the objections of one individual who gets annoyed at something trivial, Miller’s no-holds-barred style flourishes. The book is funny and eye-opening at the same time; therefore, I felt it was a good read.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

I did not care for this book.It was pushing a political agenda and just way too hard to follow the myriad of characters.

What I liked: A quirky story about a small southern town dealing with the racism and bigotry which go hand in hand with banning books. What I disliked: Too many characters (none of whom were particularly likable or stood out), causing a very muddled plot.

This book should be mandatory reading in schools, especially with some of the things happening in our country right now. Very witty and tongue in cheek, it follows POVS of different people in a backward small town when a woman finds an explicit cookbook at the public library. While the book was put there as a prank, it spawned a whole mess from book burning to white supremacy and nazi sympathizers, racism, homophobia and how Lula Dean believes she knows how to lead the townspeople and their children to live “good Christian lives.” 5 ⭐️s!! Book #61 in 2024