According to a study by PEN America last year, some 1,145 titles by 874 different authors,198 illustrators, and 9 translators have been removed from the shelves in 86 school districts in 26 states, affecting over 2 million students. Among the books that have been banned at some point over the past two decades: John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Catcher in the Rye, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Todd Strasser is the award-winning author of more than 140 young-adult and middle-grade novels, many short stories and works of nonfiction, and the semi-autobiographical novel, Summer of ‘69.

Award-winning writer and television producer Rob Sharenow oversees all programming for A+E networks. In addition to the Berlin Boxing Club, he is the author of the middle-grade novel, The Girl in the Torch, and the teen novel, My Mother the Cheerleader.

Reception at 3:30. Discussion at 4:00.

Village Center, Larchmont