Iowa author Erin Becker first saw her name in print when she was 5 years old.

The fourth Harry Potter book had come out and was being pulled from school libraries in Cedar Rapids for incentivizing witchcraft.

"I thought that was really terrible and I was a big fan of the books, so I wrote a letter to the editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette," she said.

Becker, now an author of a book challenged by school book laws, spoke at the Franklin Event Center in Des Moines for Beaverdale Books' third annual Banned Books Festival on Saturday, Oct. 10.

Her book "Crushing It" came out in August 2024, a time when book challenges were at their height, she said. The book, a middle grade story set in a town inspired by Cedar Rapids, follows two 13-year-old girls whose rivalry on the soccer field is compl

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