CNBC: “”Maus,” the decades-old graphic novel about the effects of the Holocaust on a family, has become an Amazon bestseller as part of a backlash to the news this week that it was banned by a Tennessee school board.
The McMinn County board says it took that step on Jan. 10 because of a handful of curse words and other aspects of “Maus” that it found upsetting, including “its depiction of violence and suicide.”
The board’s decision on the 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Art Spiegelman, which had been a key part of McMinn’s eighth-grade curriculum, was unanimous.
“The Complete Maus” on Friday held the No. 1 spot among Amazon’s bestsellers in the categories of fiction satire, and comics and graphic novels, and the No. 7 spot overall for all books.
“Maus I,” an earlier published book that is the first part of “The Complete Maus,” was the No. 5 bestselling book on Amazon. The second part of the story, “Maus II” was the No. 1 bestseller in the European history category.
In addition to leading to a flood of demand for the book on Amazon, the McMinn board’s ban spurred other people to make the book more accessible to readers.
One of them, Professor Scott Denham at Davidson College in North Carolina, is offering McMinn County students in the eighth grade and high school an online class on “Maus.“”