Thankfully, Jack survives, the principal turns out to be a righteous guy and Clara gets to graduate and attend the school of her dreams. Clara temporarily loses faith in books and wonders if they’re as dangerous as Lupton Academy says. In fact, it’s Catcher that tips the school over the edge when one of Clara’s readers tries to take his own life rather than come out as gay. Lots of books are name-dropped: Speak, The Perks of Being A Wallflower and The Catcher in the Rye. What librarian wouldn’t be intrigued with an activist who gets everyone excited about books? As Clara’s social network grows, more students find themselves moved and energized through reading. She helps her librarian with the deaccession, but relocates the books (now covered in plain white paper) to a series of lockers and starts checking out books as the unLibrarian. The day after she finishes the latest book by her favorite author (an alt-history YA title in which two heroes create an underground library), she finds out that her school has not only banned three books in the past ( Hunger Games, Color Purple and Huck Finn ), but has its eye on another 50.

She’s practically a second librarian at Lupton Academy, runs a bi-weekly book club called Queso out of a burrito shop and has created a network of Tiny Little Libraries. What did you like about the book? Clara describes herself as “made out of books”, which seems an apt description of this private school senior, living in Chattanooga. Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3.5 Suggested Reading by Dave Connis, Katherine Tegen Books (a division of HarperCollins), 9780062685254, 2019