We're going to be talking about banned books in this episode.

And the reasons those books got banned in the first place, a lot of times that includes

some frank talk about sex, so you've been warned.

When I was in high school, there was that one English teacher, everyone adored, the one

who sponsored the literary magazine, the one who encouraged students to keep journals

and read poetry out loud.

I thought of that teacher when I got Ashley Perez on the line.

She used to teach English down in Texas.

I taught on the southeast side of Houston at Chavez, since I was at each of his high school.

Back in the early 2000s, that meant assigning the so-called classics.

Well, I was teaching back in the days of the Killamarkingbird, of Mison Men, always some

shakes here, so I taught Julius Caesar Macbeth.

Yeah, was there ever a book you wouldn't teach?

Well, I didn't teach for my district literature textbook at all.

They just state, actually we used them as door stops.

We would just snap at the thing to hold the door open.

I think that when literature is put in a textbook, it stops seeming alive.

Ashley writes young adult books now.

But the way she said that last bit, the way she talks about literature being alive, I

felt like I was back in the classroom with her, feeling the muted thrill of AP English.

Because Ashley taught mostly black and Latino kids, she thinks a lot about how to make books

like hers welcoming for all kinds of readers.

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