The whimsical premise of Kirsten Miller's Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books eases readers into the story, but the narrative quickly becomes serious as tensions build and tempers boil.
Lula Dean knows she deserves to be respected, and she blames several people for the distinct lack of respect the town of Troy, Ga., shows her. Lula gets her chance when she discovers an erotic cake cookbook in the town library and forms the Concerned Parents Committee to remove all objectionable books from Troy's public and school libraries. Lindsay Underwood comes back from college just long enough to replace all the "wholesome books" Lula stocked in the new little library in her yard with banned books, all disguised by the dust covers of Lula's original choices. Unsuspecting town members find the books they need: a boy struggling to accept his gay brother finds a heartwarming gay romance; a faithful wife who discovers her husband is cheating finds an empowering book on witchcraft; a young boy worried about his mother's bleeding finds a book about girls getting periods; and a Black man finds evidence that "there are plenty of good folks around here. They just haven't been shouting as loud as the others." But the shouting voices bring other, more dangerous, voices into the fray, including closet Nazis, forcing everyone to reevaluate what they thought they knew about their town and its residents.
Miller (The Change; How to Lead a Life of Crime) conveys a wide range of perspectives with skill as she provides glimpses into thought patterns of a variety of characters in this insightful exploration of early 21st-century culture wars and book challenges. --Dainy Bernstein, freelance reviewer