Check out The Dog Knight - <p><b>A nonbinary middle schooler saves a dog from bullies and is offered the chance to become the Dog Knight, pr
As part of their active banning of queer books, the Trump administration and DoD have actively targeted "The Dog Knight" by myself, Bre Indigo, @mcapriglione-art for removal from DoD schools. However, you can buy it right now and support us at Bookshop!
How do I know it's banned? Well, this article was published discussing the full list of books banned by DoD schools: https://pen.org/books-banned-by-department-of-defense-schools/
It included this link to a list of all of the books banned right here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iKxUEllBpsap4cmH_vfWtzv0h069jkSc/view
Rightfully at this point your next questions is probably "Why did they ban it?" Well, they seem to have targeted a ton of books dealing specifically with gender issues, feminism and racism. Which, if you know anything about what I write, should mean I have a ton of books banned on here. But I don't!
THAT is somehow worse, because The Dog Knight is a book aimed for middle-grade students and features a protagonist who is nonbinary. It is also a book about magical talking dogs who are trying to save the world from chaos and how Frankie, our protagonist, is chosen to help them.
The list doesn't have "Navigating with You" an explicitly lesbian YA romance, "Princeless" a book that's literally about fighting the patriarchy, or "Unstoppable Wasp" a superhero book with lots of stuff about the under-representation of girls in STEM fields and comics. That sticks out.
Because what this tells me is the administration made this list by term-searching books about nonbinary people and explicitly went about removing that representation from these schools without reading any books. They explicitly went around removing books for and about kids struggling w/identity.
They aren't trying to remove books that are harmful or dangerous, they're explicitly trying to remove books designed to provide comfort and love to those who need it most. They are targeting queer children and they do not care who they injure in the process. We need to stand up for our kids.
We need to demand better. We need to fight just as hard to make sure our kids get the books they need as they are fighting to take them away. That's what The Dog Knight was written for. And sure, this is a message that financially benefits me for you to accept, but my book isn't alone on this list.
Go read "Elle Campbell Wins their Weekend" by Ben Kahn
Read "The Deep Dark" by @mollyostertag
"The Prince and the Dressmaker" by Jen Wang
"Tomboy" by Liz Prince
"Genderqueer" by @redgoldsparks
If it's on the list, READ IT
Because these books aren't banned because they're dangerous to you, they're banned because the government doesn't want your kids to feel comforted, to feel supported, to feel safe, or to feel sane. The government wants queer kids to hate themselves and you must be part of stopping them.
