A Word with Ellen Hopkins: Banned Together Film Highlights Banned Books

My interview with Ellen Hopkins, the best-selling author of over a dozen YA novels including Identical and Tricks, comes during yet another unprecedented moment in U.S. history. As the defense of so-called “parents’ rights” continues across the country, and the insidious takedown of public education becomes a federal effort, public rallying for what matters most has become a dire need in the defense of democracy

I’m speaking with Hopkins thanks to her appearance in Banned Together, a new documentary by directors Kate Way (G is for Gun: The Arming of Teachers in America) and Tom Wiggin. The film follows three students in South Carolina as they evolve from local organizers fighting to reinstate 97 books pulled from their schools into national activists.

“The overreach is a political movement to dismount public school education … It’s not just about the books. It’s bigger and deeper than that.”

Hopkins is one of several authors who were interviewed for the documentary while in attendance of the 2023 American Library Association (ALA) Conference & Exhibition in Chicago. When I ask whether these types of events have changed since the rise of book banning, Hopkins says, “ALA is librarians, so they’re mostly gonna be supportive. But there are other book events like festivals or book signings where people are there to vocally call me out or whatever, and that’s fine. I can hold my own.”

Hopkins isn’t new to the scene. Her first novel, Crank, turned 20 last year and she was publishing nonfiction books for kids before that. What is new is how schools feel about her debut novel, which is based on her daughter’s story and deals with drug addiction. “That’s one of the ones they hit all the time, and it’s just so weird to me because drug programs would bring me in so I could talk to kids about the damage that the choice to take that path has done to her life. And that’s what the book was meant to do, and I know that [it’s] done that for many kids — like, literally tens of thousands. I know that because I’ve heard from them.”

She continues: “Historically, over the years there have been challenges, but the challenges would be: A parent found their kid with a book, they want to know why the kid had the book, and there would be a conversation. This is a whole different thing, what’s happening now. The overreach is a political movement to dismount public school education … It’s not just about the books. It’s bigger and deeper than that.”

“We keep fighting, we keep pushing and we keep writing the things that we need to write because there’s gonna be those kids that need them, and I’m going to keep doing it until they tell me I’d better quit.”

Banned Together depicts this movement directly by highlighting Moms for Liberty, a group with political ties that is largely responsible for book ban efforts across the United States, as well as sites like BookLooks, which take pull quotes from books out of context in order to argue they’re “objectionable.” These groups have inspired aggressive behavior toward school boards, teachers, librarians and authors — including Hopkins.

The reason for the bans? It’s the topics Hopkins writes about in her young adult novels, including sex, mental illness and abuse, as well as her centering of LGBTQ+ characters and their experiences. Even her books for middle grades a.k.a. kids ages 10-12, which feature no mature content, are banned in Florida simply for featuring her name on the cover.

Yet Hopkins continues writing. Though she admits to having been tempted to self-censor, she knows she made the right decision in being honest both to her readers and to herself. “There are kids that need them. They just do. If they get the books, then they know that they’re okay if they’re queer or that there’s light beyond sexual abuse. They need to understand that they can make it through and books can show them that.”

Here in Utah, Hopkins has had books removed from districts at least 35 times, with the most recent banning taking place just last month. For those who are interested in staying informed, Hopkins highlights organizations to support like PEN America and the National Coalition Against Censorship. When it comes to taking action, she emphasizes the importance of standing up in front of your local school board when book bans are on the docket, even if they’ve already made up their mind. “It matters that we keep telling them that removing books from bookshelves is wrong and it’s important to keep telling them, whether or not they agree. We keep fighting, we keep pushing and we keep writing the things that we need to write because there’s gonna be those kids that need them, and I’m going to keep doing it until they tell me I’d better quit. And even then, I’ll probably self-publish something.”

To see the fight against book bans in action, Banned Together is now available to stream on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+.

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