Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) · Ewen High School library
Still © Amazon MGM Studios. Shown for commentary.
Five books on a library table, and every one of them has been yanked off a school shelf somewhere in America. Carrie White, whose mother considers reading a gateway drug to hell, is sitting in a public school with the banned-books starter pack.
Before the stack, there's the pull. Carrie takes Looking for Alaska off a library shelf and the internet had a collective feeling about it, because that is the book about a sheltered kid walking into a world that will not be gentle with him.
Still © Amazon MGM Studios. Shown for commentary.
A few seconds after the Looking for Alaska pull, Carrie tips another spine off the shelf with a Margaret Atwood already tucked under her arm. The back cover leads with the National Book Award, which is a lot of prestige to hide a 1950s love story from a girl whose mother sees reading as a gateway drug. Malinda Lo's novel won the 2021 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and it's set in 1954 San Francisco. Carrie has two more shelves of the library to get through and has already picked the book about a girl hiding who she is.
Still © Amazon MGM Studios. Shown for commentary.
One still, one stack, every Tuesday morning.
A girl stops speaking after something unspeakable, then finds a voice that could level a building. If that sounds like a certain prom, congratulations, you've read the top of the stack. Schools have challenged this memoir about as often as Hollywood has adapted Carrie, with the same result. It keeps coming back.
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A 1950s teenager hiding who she is from a family that would call it a sin. Published in 2021, which makes it the youngest book in the pile and the most banned of the last five years. Flanagan put it on the table so you'd stop thinking about 1974 and start thinking about your school board.
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Religious men running women's bodies in God's name. Carrie's mother is Margaret White. The author is Margaret Atwood. I'd bet the house on that being on purpose.
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A sheltered kid leaves home, meets the world, and watches every adult in range fail the girl at the center of the story. Challenged for years over one scene, which is about how long it takes to explain the prom to someone who hasn't seen it.
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An institution run by a woman who calls cruelty care, and a rebellion that takes the building with it. Nurse Ratched is Margaret White with a clipboard and better benefits. Of course it's at the bottom of the stack. That's where the ending goes.
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Sleuthed by @shelfsleuth · 2026-10-12
Spotted another book in Carrie? Drop the frame. The first 100 become Founding Sleuths.
One still, one stack, every Tuesday morning.
Carrie's first English classS1 E1
Quoted: Anne of Green GablesS1 E1
Stella's book: Boy ProofS1 E1
Stella's book: The Catcher in the RyeS1 E1
A classmate's copy of The ExorcistS1 E2
The Wonderful Things You Will BeSeason 1
Tommy's favorite book: The Martian ChroniclesSeason 1
Pride and Prejudice, on screenSeason 1
Quoted: FrankensteinSeason 1
Quoted: A Wrinkle in TimeSeason 1
Quoted twice: Great ExpectationsSeason 1