George M. Johnson: Challenges to my book have a silver lining, actually

NPR is looking to highlight authors whose work has been challenged or banned around the US.

Today, that writer is George M. Johnson, whose young-adult memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue has become one of the most banned books in the country.

Johnson's reaction to their book being banned is, unsurprisingly, complicated.

They expected that a memoir about growing up Black and queer would make waves, especially since many school curricula have a white, heterosexual, male focus.

But they certainly didn't expect to be such a popular target.

At the same time, though, the publicity surrounding challenges to All Boys Aren't Blue has helped spread the word about it — which Johnson is grateful for not because of sales figures, but because it likely reached readers who need its message.

Many such readers, have, in fact said publicly that works like Johnson's have saved their lives.

As for the people challenging it? Johnson doubts they've even read the book and believes they're simply objecting to the existence of LGBTQ people. 

You can read Johnson's conversation with Morning Edition's Leila Fadel — or Johnson's words themselves, in an essay — on NPR's website. 

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