Posted on January 5, 2023 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Author Maia Kobabe was warned.
When e showed a draft of eir book Gender Queer: A Memoir to fellow cartoonist Jimmie Robinson, he had useful feedback that wasn't actually about the book.
"Get ready for this book to be challenged, and take it as a compliment when that happens," Kobabe recalls Robinson saying, in an essay for NPR.
Robinson was right.
It took a couple of years — blissful years, during which Kobabe received gratitude and praise from regular readers and literary awards alike — but the challenges did finally come.
In fact, Gender Queer went from receiving American Library Association awards in 2020 (a Stonewall Honor and an Alex Award) to topping the ALA's most frequently challenged list in 2022 (representing the previous year's bans and challenged).
Head to NPR to read Kobabe's essay about rising above the chaos caused by challenges to eir book and to read or listen to an interview with em.
(And read about Kobabe's pronoun preferences in this article from The Hill.)
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Categories: Today in Books