Banned Books Week is from September 22 through September 28 this year. Many books have been challenged or banned in the U.S., and the numbers have been increasing in recent years. As a result, these books are not allowed to be read in libraries and classrooms, like the five recommendations below.
What is Banned Books Week?
Banned Books Week is an annual event that draws attention to the dangers of censoring literature. With the mission, organizations hold the annual, week-long event in the last week of September.
The American Library Association (ALA) is the primary organization that promotes Banned Books Week every year.
As an organization, the ALA focuses on promoting “the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinions.” The ALA believes in the right to express opinions, even if they are unpopular.
According to Banned Books Week’s website, Banned Books Week focuses on highlighting the value of “free and open access to information.” They use the platform “to bring together individuals in the book community” like readers, authors, publishers, booksellers, and librarians.
ALA also publishes a list of the “Top 10 Most Challenged Books” each year. The list is based on reports they gather from the media and libraries.
Each year, the event also has an annual theme. For instance, the theme in 2023 was “Let Freedom Read.” The idea centered on the right to speak and think freely as proportional to the right to read.
During Banned Books Week, one of the main initiatives is bringing light to books that have been challenged or banned in areas such as schools and libraries.
What is Book Banning and Challenging?
There is a difference between a challenged book and a banned book. A challenge is when an individual attempts to remove or restrict materials based upon the objections of another individual or individuals. Banning a book is the actual removal of those materials.
When an individual challenges a book, they are not just expressing their opinions about the book. Instead, they are seeking to remove the material and thereby restrict access to the books.
Due to efforts made by those around the challenge (i.e., librarians, teachers, parents, students, and other concerned individuals), challenging a book is often unsuccessful.
Individuals tend to try to challenge and ban books out of good intentions. For example, an individual might imagine that they are protecting other individuals, like children, from developing certain ideas about difficult topics.
The top three reasons that people challenge books are because the material is considered too “sexually explicit,” the material contains “offensive language,” and the material is “unsuited to any age group.”
Banned Books Week 2024
As mentioned above, Banned Books Week 2024 ranges from September 22 to September 28. Like the 2023 theme, the 2024 theme for Banned Books Week is “Freed Between the Lines.”
The purpose of “Freed Between the Lines” is to demonstrate that the freedom to “explore new ideas…is under threat.” It also shows that book bans not only restrict access to different stories but “undermine rights.”
For 2024’s Banned Books Week, the organization named Ava DuVernay, an award-winning filmmaker, as Honorary Chair.
Along with DuVerany, a student named Julia Garnett will serve as Youth Honorary Chair. Garnett is a free-speech student activist from Tennessee, and she uses her leadership to educate her peers about the right to read.
As a part of 2024’s initiative, Banned Books Week has a specific day dedicated to “Let Freedom Read Day.” On the Banned Books Week’s website, they urge individuals to take action to address the fact that the “freedom to read” is under attack.
For instance, participants can take five minutes to register to vote or take the ”freedom to read voter pledge.”
The “voter pledge” is a pledge that allows individuals to commit to voting and supporting policies for the freedom to read. Pledgers also check out and buy banned books on shelves to help writers, publishers, and booksellers.
The Relevance Now
According to the ALA, there was a record number of book titles challenged in 2023. There were efforts to censor 4,240 book titles in school libraries. This number is significant compared to 2022 when the record number was 2,571 — a 65% increase.
Moreover, compared to 2022, targeted censorship in public libraries increased by 92%, and 11% in school libraries in 2023.
47% of the censorship attempts were on titles from voices of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
“Every challenge to a library book is an attack on our freedom to read. The books being targeted against focused on LGBTQIA+ and people of color. Our communities and our country are stronger because of diversity. Libraries that reflect their communities’ diversity promote learning and empathy that some people want to hide or eliminate,” said ALA President Emily Drabinski in the report.
Surge in Book Banning
There were also attempts to censor more than 100 titles in 17 states. The states included Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, Utah, and more.
The reports are based on data that the OIF collected from library professionals and news stories about the topic in the U.S., and it only represents some book censorship. Also, individuals do not always report censoring efforts, meaning that there could be even more book censoring happening in the country.
What is the reason for the surge in book banning?
One reason is the passage of legislation that allows individuals to challenge and/or ban books.
For instance, in 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation in Florida.
According to Newsweek, DeSantis believes that the legislation prevents students from obtaining books that are not “age-appropriate.” Meanwhile, those who criticize DeSantis’ view view the legislation as a way to suppress discussions about topics like race and the LGBTQIA+ community in public schools.
AP News revealed that the law allows any person to challenge a book, regardless of whether they are affiliated with the school system or not.
In April 2024, DeSantis signed a bill that slightly altered the legislation so individuals without students in the school district are limited to one challenge per month.
Other states have made similar attempts at censoring books in schools and libraries.
For instance, a school district in Iowa called the Dubuque Community Schools removed 50 books in compliance with a law passed in the state in 2023.
Response To Bans
In March 2024, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed legislation that attempted to pass a parental rights bill that would censor books in public K-12 schools and overall “increase parental oversight of books and curricula. “
After learning about book bans in some states, individuals prompting censorship received criticism from many authors and publishers.
One author that decided to discuss state book bans was Stephen King. In August 2024, after finding out that Florida banned 23 of his books, King took his reactions to X (formerly known as Twitter). He posted: ” Florida has banned 23 pf [of] my books. What the f***?”
King later expanded on his tweet by sharing a statement with Newsweek.
“I have said it before and will say it again: When books are banned from school libraries, run to your public library or the nearest bookstore and read what it is your elders don’t want you to know,” King said in the statement.
In Florida, many major book publishers like Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebook, and some authors have sued over the law, filing the lawsuit in federal court on August 29th in Orlando, FL.
In the court case, the publishers argued that the law was against the First Amendment, more specifically the right to free speech.
5 Banned Books to Read (in no particular order)
Here is a list of books that one can read in celebration of the event.
Information about the reasons for banned or challenged books came from ALA’s Frequently Challenged Books List.
The rest of the information about each book came from either Goodreads, the author’s websites, or other sources listed under each title.
1. The Perks of Being A Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Reason(s) For Challenge/Ban: sexual content, LGBTQIA+ content, drugs, profanity
Genre: Young adult fiction, novel
Synopsis: According to Goodreads, the book is about ” what it’s like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie’s letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory…”
Publication Year: 1999
Other Work(s) by Author: Imaginary Friend
Perks of Being a Wallflower ranked number four on the ALA’s “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023” with 68 challenges.
The book ranked number 14 on the ALA’s “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade” from 2010 to 2019.
2. 1984
Author: George Orwell
Reason(s) For Challenge/Ban: Pro-communist content, sexual content
Genre(s): Science fiction, dystopian fiction
Synopsis: According to the Orwell Foundation, the book can be summarized as follows: “… a satire on totalitarianism, 1984 is a testament to the potential power of modern political systems, and the dark side of human nature: as O’Brien tells Winston, ‘the object of power is power.'”
Publication Year: 1949
Other Work(s) by Author: Animal Farm, A Clergyman’s Daughter, Down and Out in Paris and London
According to Playground Equipment, 1984 is the most frequently banned book of all time.
The book was number 74 on the ALA’s “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade” from 2010 to 2019.
3. The Bluest Eye
Author: Toni Morrison
Reason(s) For Challenge/Ban: Sexually explicit content, EDI content
Genre: Bildungsroman
Synopsis: According to Penguin Random House, the story can be summarized as follows: “An 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.”
Publication Year: 1970
Other Work(s) by Author: “Sula”, “Beloved”, “Song of Solomon”
On the ALA’s “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023,” The Bluest Eye ranked number six with 62 number of challenges.
On the ALA’s “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade” from 2010 to 2019, the book ranked number ten.
4. Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Reason(s) For Challenge/Ban: Drugs, alcohol, smoking, sexual content, profanity, unsuited for age group
Genre: Young adult fiction
Synopsis: From the author’s website, the book can be summarized as follows: “Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words–and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the ‘Great Perhaps.’ Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.”
Publication Year: 2005
Other Work(s) by Author: The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, Turtles All the Way Down
The book was number four on the ALA’s “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade” from 2010 to 2019.
5. The Hate U Give
Author: Angie Thomas
Reason(s) For Challenge/Ban: Profanity, sexual content, drug use, anti-police
Genre: Urban Fiction
Synopsis: From Angie Thomas’ website, The Hate U Give can be summarized as follows: “Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed…”
Publication Year: February 28, 2017
Other Work(s) by Author: On the Come Up, Concrete Rose, Blackout
The book was number 30 on the ALA’s “Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the Past Decade” from 2010 to 2019.
What Individuals Can Do
Individuals can take many steps to have the freedom to read books.
One thing they can do is follow news on social media and in an individual’s community about book censoring. It’s also important to educate oneself, family members, neighbors, and other community members.
According to the ALA, another way to help spread the word is to use #BannedBooksWeek on social media to declare the right to read. It can also be important to check out banned books and encourage intellectual freedom.
Many other books have faced challenges or bans over the years. With Banned Books Week 2024, it is important to think about reading the books listed and other banned books to support the cause.
For more information about Banned Books Week and what one can do to help, check out the Banned Books Week website.
