Rock Banned Book Club

Co-presented with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights

PGCMLS and PGCOHR host a monthly book club to explore the top 10 challenged books of 2022.

This month's discussion features "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe. Winner of the 2020 American Library Association (ALA) Alex Award and a 2020 ALA Stonewall - Israel Fishman Non-Fiction honor. 

About "Gender Queer: A Memoir"

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.

Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. (Source: Simon & Schuster)

About Maia Kobabe

Maia Kobabe is a nonbinary, queer author and illustrator from the Bay Area, California. Eir first full-length book, "Gender Queer: A Memoir," was published in May 2019. Maia's short comics have been published by The Nib and in many anthologies, including "The Secret Loves of Geeks," "Faster Than Light Y'all," "Gothic Tales of Haunted Love, "Shout Out," "Advanced Death Saves," and "Be Gay, Do Comics." Before setting out to work freelance full-time, e worked for over ten years in libraries. Eir work is heavily influenced by fairy tales, homesickness, and the search for identity. (Source: Simon & Schuster)

Rock Banned Book Club Events (Locations TBC)

June 14, 2023 - "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe (Hyattsville Branch Library)
July 12, 2023 - "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
August 9, 2023 - "Flamer" by Mike Curato
September 13, 2023 - "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson
October 11, 2023 - "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison"
November 8, 2023 - "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie
December 13, 2023 - "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins
January 10, 2024 - "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Perez
February 14, 2024 - "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
March 13, 2024 - "A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas
April 10, 2024 - "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews
May 8, 2024 - "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky
June 12, 2024 - "This Book is Gay" by Juno Dawson