Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books

In a neighborly, largely homophobic, largely white Christian nationalist small town in Georgia, well-meaning citizens make the school library remove books they fear might harm their children. Lula Dean stocks a Little Library in her front yard with wholesome used classics, such as The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. An enterprising teen swaps out the innocuous titles for books banned from the school, switching the dust jackets so no one will notice. Then the fun begins.

In case you haven’t discovered Little Free Libraries yet, they are book-sharing boxes posted near a walkway on public or private property. The boxes are always open, with anyone invited to “take a book, share a book.” Inspired in part by similar collections in coffee shops, in 2009 Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, built a model one-room schoolhouse as a tribute to his book-loving mother. Others followed suit. By the end of 2012, there were more than four thousand Little Free Libraries in the English-speaking world.

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books (by Kirsten Miller, 1924) brings humor and hope to a wide range of serious issues. As teens and adults encounter content more eye-opening than they expected from the covers, docile wives find their voices. A devout Christian dabbles in witchcraft. Families confront old secrets. The book kept me chortling from start to finish with deft touches of parody and whimsy. There’s nothing like a good laugh for resilience in troubled times.

​Images: Photos by Madalyn Cox (left) and Nils Huenerfuerst (right, cropped) on Unsplash.