“Books don’t turn kids gay, but banning them just might turn them into adults who can’t think for themselves.” With those words, Rebekah Cummings cut straight to the heart of Utah’s most heated controversy. As school districts across the state debate which books belong in children’s hands, the battle lines are drawn between parents who demand control over their children’s reading material and educators who fear that censorship will smother intellectual freedom. But behind the arguments about explicit content, gender identity, and family values, a bigger question looms: What happens when a society starts erasing the stories it finds uncomfortable?