In 2017, the book was again challenged, this time in Chesterfield County, Virginia, where it was on a summer reading list for middle and high school students. Parents demanded it be removed from school libraries, claiming it was filled with “vile profanity.” Eventually, a review committee of teachers, librarians, students, and parents decided to keep the book in school libraries. In 2013, just one year after its publication, Eleanor & Park was challenged in Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District. How did a sweet teen romance novel, a New York Times bestseller and winner of multiple literary awards, enormously popular with young readers, come to be a target of organized book banners? How did Eleanor & Park wind up 54th on the American Library Association's list of the top 100 most banned and challenged books in the USA? Eleanor & Park is currently in the crosshairs of book banners in Conroe, Texas, where names and photos of teachers and librarians who voted against removing the book from the shelves of a high school library have been circulated by hate mongers hoping, apparently, to goad some righteous citizen into taking vigilante action - the subject of my previous You Can't Read That! post. I read it because I write about banned and challenged books. But I didn't read the book to re-live my teens.
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