Iowa City West High School student Alice Gooblar-Perovic credits her early love of reading with how she understands the world.
"People say [books are] like a window or like a mirror, and I see that a lot. They also help you understand yourself better," she said.
Gooblar-Perovic was a freshman when she learned that thousands of books with sexual content, like The Handmaid's Tale and Nineteen Minutes, were being pulled from Iowa classrooms to comply with the implementation of Senate File 496, which was scheduled to take effect at the start of 2024.
In response, she and her classmates, Aahana Gupta and Lydia Cruce, started a Banned Book Club. They borrowed books frequently found on "banned" book lists from the Coralville Public Library and met after classes ended for the day to discuss them.
Operating as an unofficial club, they were unable to participate in the school's activities fair or advertise their gatherings at school — posters they hung were quickly taken down. Instead, they grew a small group through word of mouth.
“Our membership was pretty low that first year," Cruce recalled.
"It was really difficult for our first year," Gooblar-Perovic added. "We couldn't be like an official club with our school, because it would be, legally, iffy."
The group persisted. After the part of the law that affects school libraries was temporarily blocked by a federal judge, the Banned Book Club gained official recognition from the school. Now, as enforcement of the book restrictions remains frozen under a second temporary injunction, the club has 15 to 25 regular members and meets weekly to discuss books like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Color Purple, The Handmaid’s Tale and Fahrenheit 451 — some of the same titles that had been previously removed from the Iowa City Community School District's libraries. According to Iowa City West High's library catalog, the books have since been reshelved.
“Banned Book Club is really a place for discussion, no judgment, where we're just talking about what we think different themes in the book mean, and why we think it's important," Cruce said. "We're also really trying to have these important discussions about the characters in the book and the themes and why it was banned.”
While the number of book challenges in Iowa dropped significantly from the 2023-2024 to 2024-2025 school year, Iowa remains a leading state for the number of book removals.
For the founders, who are now juniors, the club is less about protesting book removals in their own district and more about sharing information and promoting access to books in general.
"I think a lot of times, in terms of banned books, there's a lot of confusion, especially among kids or teenagers that are often left out of these conversations," Gooblar-Perovic said. “I’ve found that a lot of people our age just don't have the information. So a lot of it is just saying, ‘OK, what exactly are banned books? What is it about these books that are so wrong or controversial?'"
Gupta said the club's meetings have become a place where students form friendships around stories that challenge them to think critically.
“Books can help bring us together. I like that our club does that for people," she said.
She described the club as student-focused and as independent from the school as possible. While school sponsorship provides them with a space to hold their meetings and the ability to promote their club, the three student founders lead all the discussions themselves. They plan the reading lists and continue to coordinate with the Coralville Public Library for copies instead of the public school library — mostly because, even if the book is available to borrow at school, there aren't enough copies available to check out for the entire club, Gooblar-Perovic explained.
“Books can help bring us together. I like that our club does that for people."Aahana Gupta, Iowa City West High School junior
If the injunction on Iowa’s book law is eventually lifted, the students said it could complicate the future of the club as an official school organization. Gooblar-Perovic said they're prepared to continue in an unofficial capacity if that happens.
“It would definitely be easier than our first year, even if we had to become unofficial again, because we’ve built this community," she said. “I feel a lot more confident that we would be able to make it work.”
For now, the club continues to meet as a school-sponsored organization, despite receiving occasional negative feedback from the public.
"The fact that it is so difficult to have a book club where we read banned books feels like exactly why we were doing it," Gooblar-Perovic said. "Because it’s so important.”
