An author whose book wound up being banned will be the featured speaker at the Knoxville Public Library on Wednesday evening during Banned Book Week.
Larry Baker’s book “The Flamingo Rising” was published in 1997, and eventually made into a movie on the Hallmark Channel; it’s a slice of life story about a boy whose family runs a drive-in theater. But to Baker’s surprise, it wound up being banned by a school district in Illinois, due to one provocative chapter concerning the protagonist’s first sexual experience.
Baker tells KNIA/KRLS News as part of his presentation, he’ll seek out a woman from the audience to join him in reading the controversial chapter.
“Hopefully I’ll find somebody who’s comfortable reading with me, sort of act this out like a radio drama, more than just a reading, sort of…act out the scene,” Baker says. “I’ve done this, I guess every year for the last eight or nine years, and it’s always very entertaining.”
The presentation is the final entry in this month’s Lifelong Learning Series hosted by the Knoxville Public Library; it starts Wednesday at 5 p.m.
For more details on Baker and “The Flamingo Rising” please tune in today’s edition of Let’s Talk Knoxville.