Our community has embraced Little Free Libraries. You see them as you are walking in town – mainly filled with books, but a few with puzzles. So, when the review of the book Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller came across my computer screen “an entertaining satire about a battle over banned books and a little lending library that changes a community” I had to find out more. In the review they called the book hilarious. Who doesn’t like hilarious? I purchased the book for the library, checked it out and read it. Maybe because I work in a public library and I am all too familiar with banned books I didn’t find the book hilarious, but I did find it well worth reading.

The story line is about a person who leads others in the community to ban many titles and withdraw them from the library’s collection while erecting a little lending library in front of her house filled with books she feels are more appropriate for people to read. A local book lover removes the covers of these titles and replaces them with the banned books. When people choose a book, they are not getting the story they expect – but it is the story they needed to read at the time.

My biggest take away from this novel was the reminder that books can help change our viewpoint – help us to see others in a new light or even understand more about ourselves. Several of the books they chose to ban in the story are books that have been challenged in Iowa. The author does a wonderful job of helping the reader to understand who might need to read some of these titles and how they help people navigate through difficult things in their lives.