At first, Bates refused to remove the books. She said four days passed, and she thought the controversy had been resolved. When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year’s rumors and not with her grades on the line. Now Claudia needs her best—and only—friend more than ever. But Monday’s mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday’s sister April is even less help. In the “Before” timeline, Claudia has just returned from spending the summer between seventh and eighth grade with her grandmother in Georgia. It’s been an odd summer because Monday hasn’t written to her like she usually does. Monday’s phone is disconnected, and Monday doesn’t show up to school at all the first week. Claudia finally goes to Monday’s house after school one day, but Monday’s mother, Mrs. Charles, acts aggressive and insists Monday is with her daddy. Claudia is distraught. She believes something may have happened to Monday, but Monday’s disappearance also poses a different problem for Claudia: Monday has been helping Claudia cover up her dyslexia for years, and now, Claudia is on her own. Without Monday’s help, Claudia fears she’ll never get into the prestigious Banneker High, the high school she and Monday planned on attending. Eventually, her teachers identify her dyslexia and send her to the Learning Center, where tutors help her learn to read and manage her diagnosis. Gender Queer is a graphic memoir published in 2019 by nonbinary illustrator Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns. The book charts eir discovery of eir gender identity through adolescence. Kobabe’s memoir has been challenged in states like Iowa, New Jersey, and Virginia. In a Washington Post op-ed, Kobabe dismissed parents' claims that the book “promoted pedophilia” (because of its depiction of an erotic Greek vase) as “a common accusation against work with themes of queer sexuality.” 5. Melissa (Previously known as George) by Alex Gino

The removal appears to violate the district's own policies for what happens when someone has concerns about books owned by a school library. What are some books, movies, or podcasts based on a true story that you always recommend to friends? The policy, which was rewritten and approved by the Canyons Board of Education in May of 2020 says: "The material in question will remain in use during the challenge process." It also says that challenges can only be made by current students, parents who have children at the school in question or administrators, and the policy details how those challenges shall be made and what the process for reviewing questionable materials is. L8R G8R," by Lauren Myracle, a novel written in instant messaging text that has become the country's No. 1 banned book due to sexual content. It doesn't make any sense to me," he said. "It's like they're looking for a cause to fight for. Maybe it made more sense 50 years ago."

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Claudia's school is so competitive and focused on test scores that it fails to recognize her glaring disability when, in fact, those school contexts would highlight her deficiencies;

Bates said she is stunned that the school district chose to remove books from shelves without an actual challenge.The novel shows that traumatic experiences can cause a person to repress and misremember uncomfortable truths, even though doing so is ultimately unhelpful. For instance, after it’s revealed that Mrs. Charles murdered Monday and August, Claudia shares a secret with readers: on some level, she knew all along that Monday was dead—but she hoped that Monday had been murdered by a stranger, not by her mother, which is why she repressed the truth and kept searching for answers. It’s far more palatable for Claudia to simply forget that Mrs. Charles brutally murdered Monday and kept her body in the freezer for almost a year than it is to spend years searching for a different outcome. And Claudia has other reasons for refusing to accept the truth: accepting that Monday is gone means that Claudia would have to put Monday’s memory to rest, which Claudia can’t bear to do. Further, accepting Monday’s death would mean that Claudia would also have to accept that she’s on her own in life—a wildly uncomfortable prospect for her, given that Claudia relied on Monday for everything. Overwhelmingly, then, the novel suggests that Claudia buries the fact that Monday is dead in an attempt at self-preservation. The truth is far more difficult and uncomfortable to face than the prospect that Monday might still be out there, waiting for Claudia to rescue her. One school librarian who asked to remain anonymous told Teen Vogue that there are already robust vetting tools for librarians to select books for school libraries. While they respect parents’ rights to advocate for their child, they believe established policies let “cooler heads prevail.” Claudia goes to school as usual...no Monday. No one has seen or heard from her, but no one except for Claudia even seems to be concerned. Everyone brushes Claudia off. Claudia refuses to take no answer for an answer. She needs to see Monday or hear from her to know that she's okay because Monday wouldn't do this. Not even Monday's mother or sister April help. We wanted it to be ironclad, in case this ever happened," she said. "We looked at policies in 20 different districts."

Claudia has gotten through seven or more years of public schooling by relying on her friend Monday to do her work for her (these two girls just happen to always be in the same classes doing the same projects); District spokesman Jeff Haney said the policy doesn't apply to this situation, and says the district decided to pull the books off the shelves of the school libraries while district officials review what they now feel is an issue with the policy itself — the fact that challenges to library materials cannot come from outside a school community, nor can they come from the superintendent's office or school board members. no fewer than eight people in Child Protective Services are fired ex post facto for not doing their jobs, thereby allowing the tragedy that sits at the heart of the novel (throughout the story, all public service agencies are not just bad, they are criminally negligent); This is the story of how my best friend disappeared. How nobody noticed she was gone except me. And how nobody cared until they found her . . . one year later.”This book reminds us that teens face trauma every day, and their problems are deemed not important or not serious until it gets “serious” according to adult standards. When a student lashes out, runs away, or hurts themselves people recognize all the signs that they didn’t originally take seriously. The recurring theme in this book is that adults need to listen when asked for help. Often children suffer in silence because they don’t have the courage to speak up, but why is it that so many children don’t have the courage?