--- title: John Green Fault in Our Stars Banned from California Middle School description: Add The Fault in Our Stars to the list of amazing books that have been banned from schools. canonical: https://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/ author: Megan Gibson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-29T13:02:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:27.145Z og:title: John Green's Response To "The Fault In Our Stars" Being Banned Is Perfect og:description: In case you needed anymore proof of the author's greatness og:url: https://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd49afc3fb68ede7/6986a5ccd0b6f212003065ac/9780525478812m.jpg?branch=production&width=438&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 438 og:image:height: 246 og:image:alt: 9780525478812M og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Green's Response To "The Fault In Our Stars" Being Banned Is Perfect twitter:description: In case you needed anymore proof of the author's greatness twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd49afc3fb68ede7/6986a5ccd0b6f212003065ac/9780525478812m.jpg?branch=production&width=438&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Green's Response to _The Fault in Our Stars_ Being Banned Is Just Perfect > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Behind the Scenes of the Fault in our Stars [Watch (HLS stream): Behind the Scenes of the Fault in our Stars](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wFZEN8j4.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2014-05-30. Behind the Scenes of the Fault in our Stars_ by [Megan Gibson](https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Sep 29, 2014 1:02 PM UTC  Penguin by [Megan Gibson](https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Sep 29, 2014 1:02 PM UTC Add _The Fault in Our Stars_ to the [list of amazing books](http://time.com/3418361/banned-books-week/) that have been [banned](http://www.pe.com/articles/book-750585-school-committee.html) from schools.  Dutton Books John Green’s young-adult novel about a pair of star-crossed teenagers who are both dying from cancer is an international best-seller and spawned a summer hit movie, starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as the doomed Hazel and Augustus. But it has also now been banned from the Riverside Unified School District middle schools in California. The district’s book reconsideration committee voted [six-to-one last week to pull all copies](http://www.pe.com/articles/book-750585-school-committee.html?fb%5Faction%5Fids=10204711463887625&fb%5Faction%5Ftypes=og.comments) of the book from library shelves at Frank Augustus Miller Middle School, the _Press Enterprise_ [reports](http://www.pe.com/articles/book-750585-school-committee.html). The committee voted after one parent, Karen Krueger, made the case against young people reading a book on death, illness and sex, saying, “I just didn’t think it was appropriate for an 11-, 12-, 13-year-old to read. I was really shocked it was in a middle school.” Other committee members worried that tweens would struggle with the book’s themes of mortality. When a fan asked Green what he thought of the decision on [his Tumblr](http://fishingboatproceeds.tumblr.com/post/98410137503/hey-john-what-is-your-reaction-to-the-news-that-the), the author gave the following answer: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/"},"headline":"John Green's Response to The Fault in Our Stars Being Banned Is Just Perfect","datePublished":"2014-09-29T13:02:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:44:27.145Z","description":"The best-selling author responds to news that his book has been pulled from the shelves of a California middle school","url":"https://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/","keywords":["Living","Education","Books","reading","The Fault In Our Stars","john green"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd49afc3fb68ede7/6986a5ccd0b6f212003065ac/9780525478812m.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Gibson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdd49afc3fb68ede7/6986a5ccd0b6f212003065ac/9780525478812m.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"9780525478812M","caption":"","creditText":"Penguin","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/","name":"John Green's Response to The Fault in Our Stars Being Banned Is Just Perfect"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Behind the Scenes of the Fault in our Stars","description":"Behind the Scenes of the Fault in our Stars","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wFZEN8j4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-30T20:30:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wFZEN8j4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/","duration":"PT3M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3444896/john-green-fault-in-our-stars-banned/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```