'Perks of Being a Wallflower' Targeted in Possible Book Ban

The book The Perks of Being a Wallflower is being debated in Wilson County, Tennessee, after two other titles were removed from school library shelves last month. Wilson County School Board members were scheduled to discuss the controversy at their meeting on Jan. 9, but were forced to postpone the meeting due to illness, reported WKRN. A new meeting date is forthcoming. Both sides were expected to express their concerns to the school board along with a recommendation from the book review committee.

"This book has been around for more than 20 years," Lindsey Patrick-Wright, a Wilson County parent, told WKRN. A retired librarian, Patrick-Wright described The Perks of Being a Wallflower as a classic. The novel was published in 1999 and adapted into a movie in 2012.  

"It's the story of a possible neurodivergent kid that goes through high school after he lost his good friend to suicide," Erin Moore, another Wilson County parent opposed to the removal of the book, said. Wilson County is currently in the middle of a book debate. The Wilson County school board removed two books last month after most members deemed them inappropriate for high school students. "We can't remove all of the stories that might challenge or offend, because if we do, then we remove art and experience and representation," Moore said. Ingrid Holmes, a parent pledging to remove the books from Wilson County, told WKRN, "I believe the citizens of Wilson County are not aware of the degree of the sexually explicit material that are in these books." 

While the book review committee recommended that the two remain on the mature reading list, which requires parents to be notified if their child wishes to check out a book, the school board decided to remove them. "There is already measures in place that give parental control and provide community review of these books and the board still dismissed that," Patrick-Wright said. "We are saying it's very explicit and does not belong in a scholastic children's library. I have a 14-year-old grandson; I can't imagine putting this stuff in front of that child," Holmes remarked.

In the U.S., book bans have surged in recent years, and many schools were also plagued by restrictions throughout 2022. Over the first eight months of that year, 681 attempts were made to ban or restrict library resources, which targeted 1,651 different books, according to the American Library Association.