Ask a Bookseller: ‘Attack of the Black Rectangles’ by Amy Sarig King

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. 

We continue our focus on books for kids and teens this September with a middle-grade novel that introduces censorship to middle schoolers.

Hana Duckworth of Secret Garden Bookstore in Seattle, Wash., recommends the middle-grade novel “Attack of the Black Rectangles” by Amy Sarig King.

Mac, a sixth-grader, gets assigned to read “The Devil’s Arithmetic” by Jane Yolen. It’s a 1988 novel written about the Holocaust, but he and his classmates are surprised to find that several words in the book have been blacked out.

This requires a trip to the local indie bookstore to find a version without any black rectangles blocking the text. It turns out, their teacher has censored the book.

Their teacher approves of many ordinances in their town, such as rules that bar junk food, set a curfew and determine which plays can be performed at the local theater.

Mac and his friends aren’t having it. They go to town hall meetings, picket at street corners and have a silent sit-in in the principal's office.

Duckworth says an overarching theme in this book is encouraging kids to have agency: their opinions and actions matter.

“We can’t control the way we’re treated,” Duckworth said. “But only how we react to it and how we can choose to have grace even when we disagree. There’s a really sweet line from Mac’s mother that I thought was nice. It was, ‘Grace is a good thing to have. It’s like jam. It sweetens things.’”

That metaphor and the concept of grace run throughout the book.