Answers in the Pages by David Levithan teaches us about banned books in this queer middle grade masterpiece. It hits the shelves on May 10, 2022 and trust me: it’s worth the preorder.

David Levithan tells such a rich and deep story within this middle grade that’s entertaining to adult readers, making it perfect for classroom teachers. That being said, this is a novel about a book being banned for classroom use and Answers in the Pages will likely get banned because of it.

Why You Should Pre-Order
First of all, I’d like to thank NetGalley, David Levithan, and Knopf Books for Young Readers (an imprint of Random House Children’s) for an e-galley of this book. I can assure you that all opinions are my own.

There’s so much more to this story than the A-plot, but essentially we have a parent who is trying to ban a book from her child’s curriculum. Donovan brings home his copy of The Adventurer’s and sets it on the kitchen counter. Donovan briefs us on a reading common practice that his mother often engages in: she reads the back of the back, the first few pages, and then flips to the ending before committing to a book.

After reading the ending, she immediately scoops up the book and casually walks into school with Donovan the next morning. He knows where she’s heading: the principal’s office.

This is where the story begins and it frankly sucks that I can’t quote ARCs because I’d love to quote this ending paragraph for you. Essentially, the two main characters in this book end up admitting the love that they have for each other.

Now, this can be completely up to interpretation. It could be friendship love, but Donovan’s mom thinks it’s romantic. Two boys admitting their feelings for each other in her son’s fifth grade classroom? No, sir.

(Rolls Eyes)

From there, we follow a few other storylines, which I love seeing in middle grade fiction. We jump to Gideon and Roberto’s perspective and I fell in love with them immediately. These two kids are working together on this assignment involving a notebook, where they take turns sharing things that the other didn’t already know about them.

I loved this assignment. It reminded me of Dash & Lily, which I didn’t realize was written by the same author until writing this review. Roberto and Gideon used this notebook as a journal, not just an info dump.

It doesn’t take a genius (I figured it out in the first chapter, so I don’t think it’s a spoiler) to realize that they were going to become more than friends. For a middle grade novel, the romantic scenes were super cute and swoony. I found myself grinning from ear to ear and I’m almost thirty. Beautifully written.

I loved this perspective, but I was so confused on what it had to do with the book banning situation… and guys. When I figured it out, my head exploded. I don’t know if it was really that hard to figure out (I may just be thick), but it was the greatest feeling when it was revealed.

The third type of storyline we get is from the banned book itself! I adore when authors include chapters of the books their characters are reading or writing. It’s one of my favorite tropes, so I was elated to find these chapters in here. Although, I wasn’t a huge fan of The Adventurers. It was corny and it felt like Levithan was kind of making fun of the middle grade audience, which may have been intentional.

However, I loved the sentiment.

You should preorder because Answers in the Pages promotes a great conversation about censorship and how the process of banning a book in a classroom setting. The characters are extremely well rounded and there’s awesome LGBTQIA+ representation present.


Read the Whole Review:
https://thetoweringtbr.wordpress.com/2022/05/01/this-queer-middle-grade-novel-will-make-you-want-to-look-up-banned-book-reading-lists/