Book Club Guide

Next Meeting

The NWTC Library's next Book Club meeting is October 8th, 2025, at 12 pm, in the Library (SC215B). 

Register for the event to receive an email with the meeting details. (Registration is not required for attendance.)

This event is part of the Library's Banned Books Week celebration, October 5-11, 2025. Join us and exercise your freedom to read!

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Current Book Selection

Banned Book ClubBook cover of "Banned Book Club" by Kim Hyun Sook

By Kim Hyun Sook & Ryan Estrada

Synopsis

When Kim Hyun Sook started college in 1983 she was ready for her world to open up. After acing her exams and sort-of convincing her traditional mother that it was a good idea for a woman to go to college, she looked forward to soaking up the ideas of Western Literature far from the drudgery she was promised at her family's restaurant. But literature class would prove to be just the start of a massive turning point, still focused on reading but with life-or-death stakes she never could have imagined.

This was during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military regime that entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protesters. In this charged political climate, with Molotov cocktails flying and fellow students disappearing for hours and returning with bruises, Hyun Sook sought refuge in the comfort of books. When the handsome young editor of the school newspaper invited her to his reading group, she expected to pop into the cafeteria to talk about Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Scarlet Letter. Instead she found herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. And as Hyun Sook soon discovered, in a totalitarian regime, the delights of discovering great works of illicit literature are quickly overshadowed by fear and violence as the walls close in.

(Source: Iron Circus Comics)

Bans and Challenges

  • April 2023 - Banned Book Club was removed from library shelves in the Clay County, Florida school district, along with 100 other titles, after an individual challenged the book for "anti-police sentiment," claiming that it "creat[es] dangerous anarchists in our school" and leads to "damaged souls." The book was returned to shelves after the challenge was deemed "frivolous."
  • August 2023 - In Owensboro, Kentucky, a pro-censorship advocacy group initiated a formal challenge to the Daviess County Public Library to remove 248 books, including Banned Book Club, claiming that they were "inappropriate for developing minds." The library director removed the books from the shelves. Books that belonged in the teen section are still under review, while books from the children and adult sections were returned to the shelves.
  • December 2023 - A pro-censorship political advocacy group initiated a formal challenge to Indian River County Schools in Florida to remove Banned Book Club from the library collection. As a result, the book was taken off the shelves and withdrawn from the collection.

Sources

Cultural and Historical Context

Banned Book Club is set in the 1980s during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military dictatorship. Since readers may be unfamiliar with events during this period in Korean history, the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTAsia) has created excellent resources to help readers understand the cultural and historical context in which Banned Book Club takes place.

  • Read the NCTAsia's Culture Notes to learn about the origins of censorship and authoritarianism in South Korea, the Gwangju Massacre, the Minjung Movement, and other cultural events that occur in Banned Book Club.
  • Read the NCTAsia's Curriculum Connections to learn about the book's political background as well as prevalent themes such as class disparities, political activism, and art as politics.

Discussion Questions

  1. Banned Book Club is about literary censorship in 1980s South Korea, but the book itself has been banned and challenged in the United States for reasons including "anti-police sentiment," that it "creat[es] dangerous anarchists in our schools," and that it is "inappropriate for developing minds." After reading this book, do you think these claims are justified? Are there any valid reasons to ban or challenge a book?
  2. How can banning books be used as a tool of political or social control?
  3. How do the illustrations contribute to your understanding or enjoyment of the plot, if at all?
  4. Graphic novels are uniquely vulnerable to book challenges because of their visual nature. Illustrations convey meaning through images, but potential book challengers frequently claim that images in graphic novels are not age-appropriate because they depict violence, sex/nudity, drugs and alcohol, or scenes that are offensive to one's political or religious beliefs. Do you think that any of the illustrations in Banned Book Club contributed to the attempts to ban or challenge the title? Why or why not?
  5. What harm, if any, is caused by having a book banned?
  6. Why is it important to talk about banned books?

About the Author

Photo of Kim Hyun Sook under an orange tree.Kim Hyun Sook (she/her) was hunted down by the police for reading banned books in 1980s South Korea. Her Freeman Award–winning graphic novel about the experience, Banned Book Club, has now been banned in Florida. Kim is her family name. You can call her Hyun Sook.

(Source: Penguin Random House)

Photo of Ryan Estrada with a seagull on his head.

Ryan Estrada (he/him) is the Eisner-nominated co-creator of Banned Book Club, No Rules Tonight, Occulted, Learn to Read Korean in 15 Minutes, and the Student Ambassador series. The best thing he’s ever done is marry Hyun Sook. His work can be found at ryanestrada.com.

(Source: Penguin Random House)

(Photo source: Ryan Estrada)