Los Angeles Times

Robin Abcarian: Want a good book? Try one your 9th grader isn't allowed to read

"Gender Queer: A Memoir," by Maia Kobabe.

I have discovered many wonderful books, mostly in the young adult category, by reading news stories about what's being banned in public schools these days: "Gender Queer," the riveting, upsetting graphic novel about the nonbinary author's journey of self-discovery; "Dear Martin," in which a Black teenager who is wrongfully arrested while trying to help his drunk ex-girlfriend get home writes an imaginary letter to Martin Luther King Jr.; and "Paradise Lost," John Milton's 17th century epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.

Wait, what?

Not joking.

At the end of last year, according to "Paradise Lost" was

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