ADA HOLLOWAY'S HAD ENOUGH

In Smith’s YA novel, high-school senior Ada Holloway stumbles into controversy when a routine essay assignment drops her squarely in the middle of Freeport, Ohio’s culture wars.

Ada has little idea what she wants from her future, as her parents have already sketched out a path for her that she’s not sure she wants. Simply getting through her final semester is challenge enough. She’s secretly doing homework for star quarterback Beckett Forsythe and navigating the chaos of her rebellious cousin Molly moving in with the family. The one thing she does have figured out is her senior essay topic: the life of Freeport’s founder, Everett J. Washington, a formerly enslaved who served as a Union soldier in the Civil War. But that small certainty vanishes when the mayor abruptly removes Washington’s biography from every library shelf for unstated reasons, other than that it and other books “aren’t appropriate for younger patrons.” This transforms a straightforward assignment into an unplanned act of defiance. Under mounting pressure, Ada finds that she can barely get words on the page: “Get it together. Just write,” she says to herself. “As she typed, she winced at every clunky phrase and jumbled sentence. It was a nightmare to write half a page.” These and other moments capture the strain of a student pushed to her breaking point. With her only reliable source banned, Ada flounders until her best friend, David, proposes a bold workaround: a clandestine banned-book club, hosted inside the public library. What follows is a sharply relevant exploration of courage as Ada learns what it truly means to take a stand. Many young readers will come away with a clearer understanding of book challenges, censorship, and First Amendment rights, but the novel delivers these lessons with a light touch, grounding them in everyday struggles of high school kids. As Ada navigates the trials of adolescence, she discovers that choice and voice matter, and that even quiet actions can spark meaningful change.

A story that explores confidence, bravery, and real-world pressures with admirable restraint, offering insights without drifting into melodrama.