US author Kirsten Miller: ‘Every banned book is a freedom denied’

In Book Takes, authors share three things readers will gain from their book. This weekend, US author Kirsten Miller discusses book bans, her misunderstood and maligned Southern home, and why libraries are humanity’s greatest resource.

How do you fight book bans? If you’re a US author who burst upon the scene with stories about a band of delinquent girl scouts adventuring in a secret city beneath New York’s Manhattan, you write another book.

Kirsten Miller, author of the Kiki Strike series, has written 15 books, including a series with US actor Jason Segel. When she finished writing with Segel, Miller moved from kids’ books to fiction for adults and her first novel, The Change, was described as a feel-good feminist revenge fantasy.

Miller’s latest novel is Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books, a story set in Troy, Georgia, close to the North Carolina mountains where Miller was raised. In Troy, Lula Dean decides to cleanse the town’s reading habits so, she removes all banned books from public spaces, leaving the townsfolk to read books she deems “appropriate”. But a small group refuse to be told what they can and can’t read.

Miller, who now lives in New York, shares three things readers of Lula Dean might find themselves contemplating as they turn the pages.

One book can change everything

There are people here in the United States who support book banning because they believe books can be dangerous. They’ll insist they’re only protecting the children. They worry innocent young library patrons might stumble across books that will scare them senseless or seduce them with dirty scenes. At least that’s what the book banners claim, of course. Oddly, they never seem interested in banning romance novels or horror stories. Those always stay on the shelves. Here in the US, the books banned most often feature LGBTQI+ characters or tell the terrible truth about slavery. Book banning isn’t about protecting American children. That’s a lie. It’s about hiding truths the book banners don’t like.

I’ve never heard of anyone being irreparably scarred by a book. I have, however, met plenty of people who’ve been saved by one. At some point, each of us will come across a book that inspires, consoles, educates or enlightens us. We will all find a book that alters our lives for the better. That’s what happens to the characters in Lula Dean. The epiphanies they experience are profound, funny—and completely unexpected. The fact is, you can never guess what book might help another person—or how it could change them. And that’s why all library books must remain on the shelves.

You can’t judge a book by the cover