Publication Date: June 18, 2024
The provocative and hilarious summer read that will have book lovers cheering and everyone talking! Kirsten Miller, author of The Change, brings us a bracing, wildly entertaining satire about a small Southern town, a pitched battle over banned books, and a little lending library that changes everything.
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.
What Lula doesn’t know is that a local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets, and restocked Lula’s library with banned books: literary classics, gay romances, Black history, witchy spell books, Judy Blume novels, and more. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.
That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. That’s when the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town…and change it forever.
Anyone who has ever lived in a small town knows there’s always one person who serves as a righteous crusader. In Troy, that person happens to be Lula Dean.
Author Kirsten Miller takes readers on a side-splitting journey in Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. After a teen prank leads to the discovery of an erotic cake cookbook on the library’s shelves, Lula recruits a group of citizens to remove books they believe shouldn’t be available.
To enforce her ideas of wholesome reading material, Lula creates her own lending library. Unbeknownst to Lula, someone swaps out the dust covers and adds much different reading material.
The prank sets off a chain reaction amongst the community, equipping members with knowledge and courage to expose crimes. Along the way, there’s plenty of laughs as residents discover the real books.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books delivers an engaging story about a small community caught up in book banning and the lessons learned in the process.
Kirsten Miller is the author of The Change, a GMA Book Club pick, as well as the groundbreaking YA series starring Kiki Strike. Born and raised in a small town in North Carolina, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
