‘This Book Won’t Burn’ by Samira Ahmed

As part of promoting a culture of reading at Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts, I encourage young readers’ book reviews of their favorite books. In that spirit, I display five-star reviews of books that I’ve especially enjoyed. During Banned Books Week (observed from Oct. 4 to 10 in 2026), one of my featured reviews was for This Book Won’t Burn by Samira Ahmed.

Noor Khan discovers that hundreds of books have been labeled “obscene” and removed from her school library. The story is incredibly timely, and eloquently captures what’s at stake. “You are actively hurting kids by banning books. You’re telling queer kids and trans kids and Black kids and brown kids that our stories don’t belong in school. That we don’t belong.”