Another year, another banned books week - now a battle cry as more libraries and schools are facing book bans. The reasons and numbers are well documented, as exhibited in PEN America’s 2023 report on book suppression and book bans and ALA's 2024 preliminary book ban data. Despite book banning's ubiquity within our 24-hour news cycle, the who, what, when, where, why, and how surrounding book banning still needs to be part of the discourse.
Our last year’s post on banned books week featured resources and statistics that you can find here on our website. This year, we wanted to break down a few frequently asked questions surrounding banned books week:
What is considered a “banned book?”
The words “banned,” “challenged,” “removed,” or “suppressed” are used interchangeably at times when discussing book banning. To begin, a “challenged book” is a book requested to be removed on the grounds of specific content within the book. Typically, challenged books are often brought into the conversation and people weigh in on whether or not the book’s contents pose any serious issue. Thanks to teachers, librarians, students, and informed parents coming forward, most challenges are unsuccessful. However, if a challenge succeeds, the book can be “banned” or “removed” from the curriculum/shelf.
“Suppressed” books are often removed without anyone’s knowledge, destroyed, moved to another section, or buying the rights to restrict the book’s distribution. Book suppression could also mean asking parents to sign a permission slip for their child to read the book. This example happened in Florida when parents were asked to give permission for their student to “participate and listen to a book written by an African American.” Book suppression is the highest form of book censorship, but severe forms of book banning can fit under this category too. Challenging books in any way is an attempt to censor reading material.
Why are books being challenged/banned/suppressed? Isn’t that violating our First Amendment rights?
In the short answer, yes. In the longer answer, it’s complicated. Yes, banning books violates someone’s right to receive information and to make a free choice. However, the Supreme Court has only weighed in on this issue once in 1982, but did not maintain a majority of opinion. As a result, the question of whether or not to ban a book is usually left to the state legislature and/or the schools. In a fantastic article by Sylvia Mendoza, entitled “Does Banning Books Violate the First Amendment?,”the author breaks down the 1982 Supreme Court case and the complicated issues that surround First Amendment rights and book banning.
Books are being challenged for a number of reasons, reasons that are often muddied as people push their own opinions and biases into the conversation. These convoluted opinions usually remove books that are important to literary canon in an attempt to keep “offensive language” or “sexually explicit content” off the shelves. For example, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (a YA novel banned at my own high school during my time there) is considered “sexually explicit” because it features LGBTQIA+ characters and for mentions of profanity, drugs, and sexual abuse. This book is filled with messages of hope and moving beyond horrible traumatic events - something that readers would only benefit from as they learn about this new perspective. The Diary of Anne Frank is banned for its sexual content (when Anne shares her thoughts about sex - in one entry in her diary) and for containing content about the Holocaust, which some challengers have argued only makes students “upset” and “should not be a story for young children” (I have no words for this). Harry Potter and other fantasy books are banned for teaching children witchcraft and To Kill a Mockingbird is banned for being “too racist.” For more, Bannedbooks.org has a list of “10 Reasons Books Are Challenged and Banned” from 2018 that still holds true for many cases today.
When did the practice of book banning start?
Let’s see…how much time do you have? The first case believed to be centered around book banning was in 259 B.C. when Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang burned all the books in his kingdom. We can follow this up with Roman emperor Caligula, the burning of the library of Alexandria, skip ahead to the 17th century when the Puritans decided they wanted to try burning books, to the 1933 massive book burnings led by the Nazis (you can read more about Nazi book burning on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website), to the book banning that you would recognize from post WWII to today.
The Gutman Library at Harvard offers a libguide on the history of book bans, including a fantastically detailed video from Storied presented by the incredibly talented Princess Weeks:
Where are books banned?
Really, anywhere. Book banning is a way to control people, to remove any chance for free thinking and free expression. Book banning/burning used to be associated with a grab for political power in countries associated with fascism or dictatorships. However, today many states in America have passed laws that ban a larger number of books (no state is immune from this - use pen.org’s index to find which books are banned in your state). According to PEN America’s preliminary findings, over 10,000 books were banned in public schools during the 2023-2024 school year.
Who would want this?
Another complicated question. Education Week has some of the answers, but it’s usually parents pushing to challenge books within their school district. Sometimes it can be well-meaning parents who need more context for books they aren’t familiar with, but most of the time, it’s groups, lobbyists, or politicians who want to make schools and libraries in their own image.
It’s really important to share ideas about books and their content, especially if parents have questions, but it’s another situation to remove a book without 1) reading it yourself; 2) giving people - especially students - an opportunity to discuss and vote on the matter; and 3) maintaining an open mind and consider if a specific group of readers could benefit from seeing themselves represented within this text.
Let’s be really clear: Telling people what to read or not to read is censorship. The reader needs to make their own decisions of what they feel comfortable reading - for themselves. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. But no one should take that choice away from anyone else.
Also, parents, I get it. How do we know if books are appropriate for our children? The best advice I can give is READ THE BOOK YOURSELF. You know your child and your child’s comprehension level. If your child is old enough to make these decisions on their own, TALK TO THEM IN AN OPEN AND HONEST CONVERSATION. And if you still need some help, Common Sense Media, librarians (the ultimate book experts!), or school-approved sites like Scholastic, Usborne Books, and Brightly are all there for you.
This was…a lot. How do I get educated and become more involved?
I know - this was a lot of information for a blog post. And I thank you and appreciate you for sticking with me until the end. If you want to get involved for Banned Books Week or any other week throughout the year, the following resources can help in terms of staying informed and staying active:
- BookBrowse, “How Anyone Can Fight Book Bans”
- Publishers Weekly, “ALA Finds Book Challenges Are Slowing in 2024”
- Publishers Weekly, “Children’s Authors on the Real-World Cost of Book Banning”
- Banned Books Week website
- ALA’s Book Ban Data page
- Your local independent bookstore
- Your public library
September 28th is “Let Freedom Read Day” which is a day to push all efforts toward educating and pushing back against book banning/removing/challenging/suppressing. You can find out the details on their website.
Thank you for listening, Furious Readers. As always we will continue to push for literary equity for all. Until next time, read often, read well, and read furiously.