The book hasn't been banned, it's just not been selected as a required or optional text in a new English qualification for Welsh schools. Steinbeck is a wonderful author and story-teller, and his stories provide a useful insight into America's difficult recent past in regards to racial segregation (as well as other issues such as oppression of the poor). America is an important country, and it's useful to understand why it remains such a damaged society with deep racial divides even today, but it's not Wales is it.
MouldyCat
Had a google to see what dog it was - couple of reports suggesting it was a "Bully XL" - STV https://news.stv.tv/north/family-devastated-after-much-loved-mum-killed-by-american-bulldog-in-aberdeen-home and I'm afraid the Sun https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/32210765/first-pic-of-mum-mauled-to-death-aberdeen/
And coconut milk. We now have to call that "non-mammary coconut secretion"?
I'm planning to buy this game this weekend. There's a community mod for it that brings it up to date with enhanced graphics, QoL fixes and VR support - https://www.xwaupgrade.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=13107
Only a couple of quid on GOG right now - https://www.gog.com/en/game/star_wars_xwing_alliance
A trackball can lead to a rather exciting life. You can operate them while they are perched on the very edge of an excitingly messy desk, or even on your thigh for those times when your desk is just too cluttered. My advice is to stick with a traditional mouse, and thus stick with a traditionally dull life.
I'd say these books are important for anyone studying American literature - and probably essential for anyone studying American literature of the 20th Century.
They're not so important for Welsh pupils and don't need to be included in a general English literature syllabus for 15-year-olds in the UK. The reasoning outlined in the article for choosing not to include these sorts of works in the list of required and optional texts for this specific qualification is pretty convincing IMO and I completely support it.
No books are being banned from schools or anything like that. The article headline is I suspect just trying to get clicks from the anti-woke crowd.