Banning Books and Taking Hostages In January, the McMinn County, Tennessee school board voted to remove Maus, a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman depicting the Holocaust, from its eighth-grade curriculum. The board’s justifications for banning the novel include its use of nudity and curse words, as well as references to premarital sex, suicide, and violence. While Maus certainly contains violence, its purpose is to recount the experiences of Holocaust victims, not to promote violence or sexuality.